Naruto: Konoha's Shinigami
by Terror of The Azure Flame
Summary: During Naruto's fight against Mizuki he dies but Kyuubi saves him by unlocking a power not seen since the Yondaime Hokage. What is the secret behind the two blades Naruto now possesses and what other secrets lay behind his new power and abilities? R
1. Awakening

Naruto: Konoha's Shinigami

Chapter 1: Awakening

By: Terror of the Azure Flame

Disclaimer:

I don't own Naruto because Kishimoto does. If I did then Naruto wouldn't have to deal with the king of 'emo' and he would be a god among men.

Summary:

During Naruto's fight against Mizuki he dies but Kyuubi saves him by unlocking a power not seen since the Yondaime Hokage. What is the secret behind the two blades Naruto now possesses and what other secrets lay behind his new power and abilities? This will be a Naruto/Bleach crossover and a Narutoxharem with character bashing.

"Talking" normal talk

_'Thinking' _normal people thinking

"**Blah!" **Bijuu/summon talk or yelling or Gai and Lee youth speeches.

_**'Blah!' **_Bijuu/summon thinking

* * *

The Sandaime Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, stood gazing over the village of Konohagakure no Sato with a trouble expression. Just a few hours ago his favorite surrogate grandson, Naruto Uzumaki, had stolen the forbidden of sealing for reasons unknown. He knew the young Uzumaki was pretty upset after failing the graduation exam. With this being his third failing he would have to drop out of the ninja academy and go through the regular schooling systems. However, he could not understand how Naruto had gained knowledge of the forbidden scroll in the first place. It was a little known fact that the forbidden scroll of sealing was actually a Namikaze clan scroll as it had been created by Minato Namikaze himself upon his ascension to the title of Hokage. Also, with the fact that Naruto was son of both Konoha's yellow flash and Kushina Uzumaki, the crimson death it was actually his clan inheritance when he became of age. The death of Minato had taken a heavy toll on his heart but he had no idea of the whereabouts of Kushina. It had been reported that she had died in battle after giving birth to Naruto but her body was never discovered amongst the corpses in the aftermath of Kyuubi's attack.

'_If Kushina had remained alive to take care of Naruto things may have turned out differently. However, I still believe there were other factors in her untimely disappearance but I can't prove anything even after all this time.' _Hiruzen thought.

His thoughts quickly returned to Naruto as a small smile graced his features. He was one of a select few that was aware of the tremendous amount of untapped potential that Naruto possessed. It became apparent to him that Naruto was far more intelligent than he let but chose to hide behind a mask of false happiness and fake smiles. He knew this because some of his most trusted Anbu had taken it upon themselves to train the boy when he was younger in the shinobi arts while he was in their care. Naruto's mask was a direct result of all the hate and anger that had been directed at him at a young age by the arrogant and ignorant villagers at a young age. The boy used his mask to deceive the civilians as well as many shinobi that he was no threat to them by playing the role of a hyperactive, loudmouth idiot which had even fooled him at one point. It pained his being that the villagers could not respect his successor, the Yondaime Hokage's wish that the boy be seen as a hero for his burden of being the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no youko by keeping the beast sealed away inside his own body. He understood that the villagers suffered a great loss of their loved ones but their desire to kill the boy because of his burden was something he could never condone. He tried to protect the boy as best he could but he could only do so much for one individual. When he had returned to office the council had already strip him of some his power but luckily he had not delayed any longer to retain his former position. If he had then he would've been nothing more than a glorified figurehead. He could not undo the damage that had been done so what remained of his power was used to protect Naruto. He was grateful to those amongst the clan heads such as the Aburame, Akimichi, Hyuga, Inuzuka, and Yamanaki as well his loyal Anbu that recognized the boy for who he was even if they had no knowledge of his true legacy as the son of the fourth. However, there were many that infuriated him such as Minato's student and son the white fang, Sakumo Hatake, Kakashi Hatake. The former Anbu captain could only see Naruto as the Kyuubi in human skin that took away his sensei and father figure. He was disappointed that Kakashi was no different than the villagers and kept him away from Naruto as much as possible. He had hoped that Kakashi would've supported Naruto and when time for him to become a Genin came would be able to advance his shinobi training but his hopes were in vain.

Hiruzen turned away from the window to return to his desk to where his viewing orb lay to check in on Naruto. He couldn't repress the shudder that passed through his frame as he recalled how Naruto had managed to escape with the forbidden scroll. If he hadn't returned to collect his pipe who knows how long it would've been before he had learn of the absence of the scroll. He was ashamed to think that he, Hiruzen Sarutobi, god of Shinobi was taken down by Naruto's Oiroke no jutsu (Sexy technique). He was keeping in mind that what normal male wouldn't be knocked out by a major nosebleed after viewing a beautiful, curvy, and naked blond standing before them. He was lucky he had only been out for only a few minutes but Naruto had managed to create the ultimate anti-pervert ninjutsu.

'_If we can recover the forbidden of sealing then I will have to label that jutsu down as an S-rank kinjutsu._' Hiruzen thought, tilting his hat to shade his eyes. _'Such a terrible jutsu that can bring any man to his knees no matter how powerful that individual may be will be devastating in the wrongs hand that wish bring a man to his knees in an instant.'_

Shaking away such irrelevant thoughts, he searched the village for Naruto's unique chakra signature and was pleased that he was only just outside the perimeter of the village at the moment. Focusing on the orb, he brought up an image of Naruto in a clearing and from the looks of it he had been looking over the forbidden scroll for quite some time. It was at that moment, Iruka Umino came across Naruto and Hiruzen watched the following proceedings.

_Moments earlier…_

Naruto arrived in a small clearing just outside of the walls of Konoha with the forbidden scroll strapped to his back. The young Uzumaki had been devastated earlier when he failed the Genin exams for the third and final time. He had trained so hard to perfect the three basic techniques but couldn't perform the Bunshin jutsu because he always managed to overload his clones with too much chakra which resulted in half dead Bunshins. He had thought his dream to become Hokage was over when Mizuki-sensei had come to inform of a makeup exam. He had been suspicious at first since he knew that Mizuki had hated him because of the fox but he had seemed to genuinely want to help him so he gave him the benefit of the doubt. However, now that he thought about it seemed rather strange that the old man had been shocked by his appearance in his office. However, the chance at finally becoming a genin had pushed all doubts aside and he charged straight ahead in order to reach his dreams. Upon arriving in the clearing, he immediately began looking over the scroll.

"Okay, Mizuki-sensei, said I only had to learn one jutsu from the scroll and I will have passed the make-up test." Naruto said, aloud.

Upon seeing the first jutsu, Naruto had to resist cursing kami for conspiring against him since the first jutsu was the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow clone Technique). Bunshins were his absolute worst skill and it seemed he could never escape that horrid jutsu. He began reading over the description of the jutsu and quickly realized the difference in the Bunshin and Kage Bunshin.

'_The Kage Bunshin no jutsu is forbidden kinjutsu that creates solid clones that are capable of direct contact. Kage Bunshins are exact copies of the user and are capable of performing jutsu unlike the normal Bunshin jutsu. They are capable of independent actions based on the personality of the caster of the jutsu. Kage Bunshins require massive amounts of chakra which is then divided evenly amongst the user and number of clones generated. An interesting side effect of Kage Bunshins is that whatever the clones learned during their lifetime is transferred back to the user themselves. This Jutsu is recommended for only Jounin and above due to the high risk of chakra exhaustion that may result in death.' _Naruto read, mentally.

Naruto cocked his head to the side as he contemplated the use of such an advanced technique before deciding to give it a shot. Besides, it only required a single hand seal and lots of chakra which he had plenty of. With that thought in mind, Naruto set out to conquer his most troublesome jutsu ever.

_30 minutes later…_

Naruto stood in the middle of the clearing panting, heavily after finally managing to complete the Kage Bunshin no jutsu. He was about to store away the scroll when an idea came to him. Why should he just learn one scroll when he could learn as many as he needed while he had the scroll? He knew that his repertoire of jutsu was seriously lacking so why not learn more. Pulling out a blank scroll that he normally used for planning out his pranks and began to copy as many interesting Justus that he could before Mizuki arrived to grade him. It didn't take long to fill the scroll as he had picked up quite a few offense as well as defensive jutsu such as Katon: Karyuu Endan and Suiton: Suijinheki.

He had just finished copying the last jutsu and placing his scroll back into his pouch when a chakra signature drew his attention. He quickly rolled up the scroll and secured just as Iruka emerged from the trees and landed in the clearing.

"NARUTO, WHAT WHERE YOU THINKING WHEN YOU DECIDED TO STEAL THE FORBIDDEN SCROLL? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH TROUBLE YOU HAVE CAUSED?" Iruka yelled, utilizing his famous big head jutsu.

Naruto blinked as he cocked his head to the side to analyze Iruka before slapping on his mask. The chuunin instructor was surprised that Naruto didn't seem to show any signs of regret for his actions and this worried him.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei, since I managed to learn a jutsu from the scroll that means that I can become a genin, right?" Naruto exclaimed, excitedly.

Iruka was taken aback by Naruto's statement. '_What gave Naruto the idea that this was some sort of make-up exam?' _Iruka took a quick once over of Naruto. '_It does look like he has been training this entire time but what's really going on? I better just ask him and find out what he knows.'_

"Naruto, who told you could become a genin by learning a jutsu from the forbidden scroll?" Iruka inquired.

"Mizuki-sensei told me that if I learned at least one jutsu from the scroll then, you would let me graduate and become a genin. I already learned this really cool jutsu so doesn't that mean that I pass the test?" Naruto replied with a foxy grin.

'_Why would Mizuki tell Naruto something like that and I don't sense that Naruto is lying so why-' _Iuka's thoughts were cut short by the sound of objects coming towards them.

A quick flash of steel revealed several kunai on a direct course for an unsuspecting Naruto. Acting purely on instinct, Iruka tackled Naruto to the ground but in the process the kunai lodged themselves into his back drawing a pained gasp from the brown-haired chuunin. Naruto let out a grunt as he landed on his back and turned wide eyes onto Iruka was hanging above him with a pained grimace on his face. The blond found himself confused but a voice quickly drew his voice to a new arrival.

"Iruka, I don't know why you chose to save the brat but it doesn't matter now." Mizuki said, from a tree branch. "Naruto, give me the forbidden scroll!"

Naruto was even more confused. "Hey, Mizuki-sensei, why did you attack Iruka-sensei like that? Is this part of the test as well?"

"No, Naruto this isn't some sort of test. Mizuki tricked you into stealing the forbidden scroll for him." Iruka said in a strained tone.

"What do you mean? So, this means that I don't get to pass and become a genin?" Naruto said in disbelief.

"Why do you think I would want to help you, demon brat?" Mizuki said then, smirked. "Naruto, do you want to know why everyone including Iruka hates you?"

Iruka looked at Mizuki in alarm. "Mizuki, you mustn't tell him …."

"It because you are the Kyuubi no Youko that attacked the village thirteen years ago and that's why everyone hates you." Mizuki sneered.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock. "Why wasn't I ever told any of this?"

"It quite simple because the Hokage knew that if you remembered who you were then you would seek revenge for being turned into a human. However, I'm not going to give you a chance since I'm going to kill you here and everyone shall praise me as a hero." Mizuki said as he gripped one of the Fuuma shurinkens attached to his back.

Iruka struggled to his feet. "Naruto, take the forbidden scroll and get out of here."

Naruto slowly got to his feet but made no attempt to move. Mizuki saw this and immediately threw the giant shuriken at the shell-shocked blond. Iruka quickly pushed Naruto away as he dodged the deadly projectile. Shocked out of his trance, Naruto took one last glance at the two men before picking up the scroll and taking to the trees.

Mizuki glared at Iruka. "I don't know why you helped the demon brat but once I'm done with you then I'm going after him."

"Not if I stop you here and now, Mizuki-teme!" Iruka exclaimed as he drew a kunai.

The brown-haired chuunin dashed towards his former friend in hopes to give Naruto enough time to get away and return with help. The only question was could he hold out long enough with his current injuries.

Meanwhile, Naruto felt confident that he had managed to gain quite a bit a distance stopped and took refuge in a tree. Setting the scroll down in his lap, his thoughts wondered back over to what Mizuki had said and it began to make sense as to why he was hated.

'_Now I know why everyone always glares at me and used to beat me when I was younger. It's because I'm the fox that killed everyone but jiji told me that fox was killed by the Yondaime so why would he lie to me. Did he want to become a ninja so that he gives me a mission so that I could get killed but he was always so nice? I don't know who to believe anymore.' _Naruto thought as he sank into the depths of despair.

A sudden noise drew his attention to area below him but he didn't dare move for fear of being discovered. He had no way of telling if it was Iruka or Mizuki but he could clearly feel two chakra signatures and feared for his life. His ears suddenly perked up as he clearly heard voices despite the distance from his spot to the ground.

"Iruka, if you had just let me killed the demon brat you wouldn't be in this situation right now. You know that he's the Kyuubi and is merely biding his time until he can take his revenge on the village for what the Yondaime did. That's exactly the type of thing that a demon would do." Mizuki said.

"You're right that's exactly what a demon would do." Naruto breath hitched in his throat as tears sprung forth. "However, that's not something that Naruto would ever do. He loves this village more than anyone and would never harm its people. He has the potential to become the greatest ninja this village has ever known. He might be a hyperactive, loudmouth knucklehead but he is also my best student and I will do everything I can to make sure that he realizes his dream. He has put up with the misguided hatred for so long and I'm proud to know that I've had the chance to be a part of his life even if this is where my road ends."

Mizuki's glare only intensified. "Fine, if you want to die as a 'demon lover' then I'll kill you now then, finish the brat."

He grasped his remaining fuuma shuriken and began spinning it until it resembled a giant buzzsaw. Iruka could only stare helplessly as his former friend prepared to hurl the deadly projectile at him.

'_So, this is how it ends for me? I never even got the chance to apologize to Naruto for the way that I used to treat him. Maybe, my death will atone for all the wrongs that I've ever committed against him.' _Iruka thought with a final resolution.

He gently closed his eyes and awaited his final moments out with a small smile on his face. However, a sudden grunt of pain caused his eyes to snap open just in time to witness Mizuki flying to the ground after Naruto had driven a knee into the side of silver haired chuunin's head. Mizuki managed to right himself but had lost his grip on his weapon as he landed in a crouched position. He glared up at the orange-clad youth that was glaring at him with icey-blue eyes.

"Don't you dare lay a hand on my sensei or I'll kill you." Naruto growled out.

Mizuki laughed. "You think that a snot-nosed brat like you can go up against me. In your human form you don't stand a chance against me, Kyuubi brat."

Naruto didn't reply as he removed the forbidden scroll from his back and set it down against the tree. Flaring his chakra, the blond container brought his hands up into a cross seal as he prepared to unleash his latest jutsu.

"Taijuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto called out.

A massive cloud of smoke immediately surrounded the clearing for a few moments but when it cleared Iruka and Mizuki could only gape in amazement. Hundreds of Naruto's could be seen everyone creating a veritable wall of orange-clad blonds. Iruka could only stare at his student as he realized that this was not the regular Bunshin jutsu but the Kage Bunshin which was considered a Jounin-level technique. He couldn't help but feel proud of his student at accomplishing such a feat.

"Get ready, Mizuki-teme! We're going to pay you back with interest." The Naruto clones all chorused together.

Mizuki could only stare in fear as all the Naruto's began to descend towards him before his screams of pain echoed throughout the forest as he was pummeled. A few moments later, a completely decimated Mizuki lay twitching on the ground as all of the kage Bunshins vanished in a huge poof of smoke. Naruto turned his gaze over to Iruka and with a foxy grin flashed the injured chuunin a victory sign.

"How was that, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked, cheekily.

Iruka chuckled. "Come here and close your eyes, Naruto. I have a special gift for you for stopping Mizuki."

Naruto happily bounded over to Iruka and closed his eyes as he waited for Iruka to give him his special gift. He felt his goggles being removed before the feeling of cloth being wrapped around his head. Slowly, he reached up to his forehead and felt the cool metal of a hitai-ate before his eyes shot open in surprise. He saw Iruka holding his goggles in his right hand while his own hitai-ate was strangely absent from his own forehead. He couldn't stop the face-splitting grin that overcame his expression as Iruka smiled back at him.

"Congratulations, Naruto! You've earned the right to become a true shinobi of Konoha." Iruka said his voice thick with pride.

Naruto quickly enveloped the older Nin in a hug as he realized he was one step closer to fulfilling his dream. However, the touching moment was suddenly shattered by an animalistic grunt from behind Naruto. Both Nins shifted their gaze over to sound and where shocked by the site that greeted them. Mizuki was standing once again but this time he was covered by a dome of purple chakra. They could only watch in shock as the silver-haired Nin began to undergo a startling transformation. His muscles bulged as he began to grow in height while fur began to cover his body. His clothes were shredded till on his tattered pants remained. As his transformation was completed, Mizuki had gained the appearance of a hulking man-tiger.

"You thought I was done, Kyuubi brat? With the power that I've gained from Orochimaru-sama I am invincible." Mizuki proclaimed.

With that said, the former Nin dashed forward with his claws prepared to rend his two preys to shreds. Thinking quickly, Naruto pushed Iruka away but couldn't move quickly enough to dodge the transformed Mizuki. Iruka could only watch in horror as Mizuki plunged his arm deep into Naruto's chest just missing his heart. With a sickening squelch, Mizuki pulled Naruto off his arm before tossing towards Iruka where he landed at the injured chuunin's feet. Baring his fangs, Mizuki began to stalk towards the terror-stricken Iruka with the intent end his life. As the life began to slowly leave Naruto's body, a twist of fate made itself known with the intent to grant the young Uzumaki with power beyond his wildest dreams.

Within Naruto's mindscape, the feared Kyuubi no Youko gaze down at the floating form of its container with a steady gaze. The great beast was awakened when Naruto had received the injury and the mindscape that represented its caged being began to crumble at an alarming rate. The crimson kitsune quickly replayed the events that led up to this moment and could only frown at the ignorance of the human known as Mizuki. Despite its terrible reputation, Kyuubi was deeply impressed by its containers willingness to sacrifice his own life for another. Realizing that if the brat died then its existence would end as well decided to give Naruto something that was rightfully his. Because of the sealing performed by the Yondaime a power had been locked away within the seal that bound it to Naruto's soul. However, now was the time to unleash the power upon the world once again. Red chakra slowly seeped from the bars and engulfed Naruto's seemingly lifeless form.

"**You had best be grateful of what I'm about to do for you, kit. Now take your rightful power and crush this pathetic ningen that dares to think he can defeat my vessel." **Kyuubi growled out.

With a sudden gasp of air, Naruto's mindscape quickly shifted to a frozen wasteland with a few sakura trees. Naruto slowly opened his eyes to see only a red haze that engulfed his vision but at the same time a surge of pain engulfed his entire being. However, the pain only lasted for a brief moment before the red haze vanished as its purpose was done. The young Uzumaki slowly got to his feet as he gazed at his surroundings with awe. So where was he now? The only place that had snow, according to what he'd been taught, was the frigid Yuki no Kuni, the Land of Snow. Even Yuki no Kuni, however, had never been reported to have Sakura trees covered in full bloom. If he wasn't in the Land of Snow, one of the only places that suffered through winter, then where could he be?

_'On this plain of never-ending ice and snow,' _the Blond thought. _'If this is what death is supposed to be like? I guess now all of my pain will finally end._

"So," a deep voice, like the rolling thunder, spoke. Nearly jumping out of his skin, Naruto turned at near light speed, coming face to face with a huge blue dragon, "you're finally here."

Its scales were smooth and slick and reflected the miniscule light perfectly, which gave them an ice-like shine. Atop its head was a crown of spikes, each of which jutted backwards like shards of broken glass. Its nostrils were thin and narrow, almost serpentine, but its breath did not leave clouds of condensation behind.

"Tell me. Can you hear my name?" The dragon moved closer, its glowing red eyes boring into his own, "Can you call out to me, to Hyôrinmaru?"

Before Naruto could give a reply a soft, feminine voice reached his ears. "So, it is finally time for you to claim what it is yours."

Shifting his gaze once again, Naruto found himself gazing at beautiful woman dressed in an ornate kimono of crimson red with pink sakura petals scattered across it while tied with a pink obi. Her light pink eyes gazed at him with warmth and compassion while her dark hair cascaded uninhibited down across her shoulders to stop midway down her back. Naruto felt the heat rush to his cheeks as he stared at the beautiful woman before him which caused her to giggle.

"Tell me, young one! Can you hear my name?" The woman tilted her head, her pink eyes boring into his. "Can you call out the name of your will to protect others, to Senbonzakura?"

"Is that what I should call the both of you?" Naruto asked as his gaze shifted between the two entities before him. His voice was low and quavering with fear and awe as his eyes were wide and his breathing came out in shaky rasps while his heart thumped loudly. "Can I call you Hyôrinmaru and Senbonzakura?"

Hyôrinmaru seemed to grin, baring two rows of shiny, carnivorous teeth, "So, you _can_ hear the both of us after so long.?"

"For so long we have waited for the day when can be of service to you. To be your sword and shield to protect you from your enemies." Senbonzakura said as she moved closer to him.

Naruto could only stare as the dragon and woman came to him then, he felt warmth permeate his body as the woman embraced him from behind to rest her chin atop his own head. Hyôrinmaru coiled his massive serpentine body around the two until he hovered in front of Naruto's face as he gazed down at the boy before him.

"I don't understand what's going on? Is this is what death is supposed to be like?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"No, Naruto this is not death as you are still very much alive. The Kyuubi is using his chakra to repair the damage to your body while you are in a state of suspension. Because of the Shiki Fujin that was placed upon you to contain you it sealed away both myself as well as Senbonzakura." Hyôrinmaru replied.

"Wait, Mizuki-sensei said that I was the Kyuubi!" Naruto exclaimed in alarm.

"My dear Naruto you are not the Kyuubi no Youko. When the Kyuubi was defeated the Yondaime utilized the Shiki Fujin to seal the soul of the Kyuubi into you by summoning the Shinigami to sever his soul from his body. You are merely the container of his soul as well as all of his infinite power. However, now that we have been unsealed then, our power is also yours." Senbonzakura replied.

Naruto was about to ask another question but he was quickly cut off by Hyôrinmaru as he knew that there were other matters of great importance to take care of.

"Naruto, we know that you have many questions but you must now use our power to save the one precious to you name Iruka." Hyôrinmaru said.

Naruto's eyes widened as he completely forgotten that he was in his current situation because he had tried to save Iruka from Mizuki-teme. "I have to go back and save Iruka-sensei from that traitor Mizuki-teme. Tell me how I can use your power to save Iruka-sensei?"

"As soon as you leave this place you will know how to use our power to save him. Senbonzakura replied. "Now, it is time that you return to show the world the awakening our true power."

Naruto felt the warmth of Hyôrinmaru and Senbonzakura vanished as he was thrust from his mindscape and back to the real world. Kyuubi chose that moment to make an appearance as it gazed at the two beings before it before shifting its attention to the outside world through Naruto's senses. The very foundation of the shinobi world was about to be thoroughly shaken up by Naruto's ascension to power.

In the real world, Mizuki was almost to Iruka when a sudden pressure filled the clearing making it hard for him to move. Iruka was also feeling the pressure and had a great difficulty in breathing. However, his eyes were wide with shock as he saw the unbelievable happening right before his very eyes. Naruto had stood back to his feet and was slouched forward with his head hung low. The deadly wound in his chest was rapidly closing until it left only unmarred skin. Both men could only stare in disbelief as the formerly dead blond was standing before them as if he not just been at death's door. Slowly, the blond raised his head to glare at the transformed Mizuki as the pressure was steadily beginning to increase. With a sudden jerk, Naruto threw his head back as a scream was released from his throat and his form was engulfed by white light. When the light died down Naruto stood before the two now holding twin swords in his hands.

The sword in his right hand had the hilt was wrapped in azure cloth and the cap at the bottom appeared to be made of some sort of bronze, or perhaps even gold. The hand guard just beneath the blade was made in the design of a four-pointed star, also appearing to be composed of gold. The blade itself was an oddity as well. The metal gleamed with a soft silver glint that belied its true purpose and the steel appeared to be as smooth as glass. Unlike the standard ninja sword, like a kodachi or a ninjato, the blade had majestic curve to it and was quite long. It seemed to be the size of an ordinary katana, which was a big sword for someone of Naruto's stature. The sword in his left hand had the hilt wrapped in a light pink cloth with a cap that also appeared to be made of bronze or gold material. The hand guard was made in the design of a square with four L-shaped holes also appearing to be gold. The blade was also an oddity in the same fashion as the first sword that gleamed in the moonlight with a soft silver glint.

Mizuki quickly got over his fear as he glared at the Blond. "So, you still think that you can stand against me, Kyuubi brat? Even with those swords they are nothing more than toothpicks compared to power I've received from Orochimaru-sama."

Naruto could feel the indignation come from both Hyôrinmaru and Senbonzakura and their demands to strike Mizuki down for his insults. He gazed upon Mizuki and for a moment the transformed Nin felt a tremendous pressure upon his being that took his breath away. The pressure soon vanished as Naruto his left hand to bring the sword vertically before him as a sudden command came to his mind.

"Chire, Senbonzakura!" Naruto exclaimed. (Scatter, Thousand Cherry Blossoms!)

Iruka and Mizuki could only watch in amazement as the blade began to glow a brilliant pink before the blade slowly dissolved into thousands of slender, petal-like blades. The blades were mostly invisible to the eyes of both Nins so there appeared to be only a few pink petals that swirled around Naruto in a protective manner. Mizuki quickly got over his shock as he once again sneered at Naruto.

"Well, isn't that a pretty little lightshow and here I thought I was going to see some of the power of the great Kyuubi no Youko before I killed you. I guess I'll just hurry and finish the both of you so I can get out of here with scroll before the others arrive." Mizuki said as he charged Naruto.

A smirk appeared on Naruto's face and with a single mental command the deadly blades of Senbonzakura shot towards the charging man-tiger. Mizuki paid them no mind as he completely dismissed the threat that they posed and ensured his imminent death at Naruto's hands. Mizuki's mad charge was quickly halted as the petals began to slash into him before he was engulfed a wall of pink petals. When the wall of petals receded there was nothing that remained of the traitor Mizuki except for a few bloodstains that littered the ground. With its purpose fulfilled the petals reformed into a blade as Naruto dropped his hand to his side. The consequence of Mizuki's death quickly overcame him as he dropped to his knees and deposited his lunch onto the ground.

Having finally gotten over his shock, Iruka painfully shuffled over to Naruto before placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. Naruto looked at his brother/father figure with a haunted look in his eyes.

"Iruka-sensei, I killed Mizuki-sensei!" Naruto said in a haunted tone. "I really am the Kyuubi just like everyone thinks I am."

"This is a dilemma that all shinobi face" he started in the kindest, most comforting tone he could gather. "We ask ourselves whether the killing we do was right, should we have taken a life. Know this, there is very little black or white in our world. You are not a monster, you killed a traitor that threatens our very way of life, you didn't just _kill,_ you _protected_. You didn't kill indiscriminately, for pleasure. You drew no pleasure from the fact that you killed. It never gets any easier but you learn to steel yourself. You are worried about what you felt when you killed Mizuki-teme. Don't the forget the feeling of regret that you feel because you're human. For the day you stop feeling _anything _for the people you kill, you will stop being human and become a true _monster"_

Naruto visibly calmed at his words, considering this piece of wisdom, and accepting is as the truth. He was also reassured by the spirits of his blades that he did the right thing which caused a smile to grace his features. This was the path that he chose to follow and to protect those that were precious to him he would embrace the true meaning of being a shinobi of Konohagakure.

"Thanks a lot, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto chirped.

Iruka smiled as he ruffled Naruto's hair. "Think nothing of it, Naruto. Now, let's go take the scroll back to the Hokage so we can explain what happened."

Naruto nodded as he picked up his swords that were both now secured in black sheaths for each blade. For a moment, both wondered where they came from but Naruto shrugged as Iruka went to pick up the scroll of sealing. A sudden noise drew their attention just as two Anbu landed in the clearing. Naruto quickly recognized the two as cat, Yuugao Uzuki, and tiger, Yamato or Tenzo, whom had protected him when he was younger.

"Umino-san and Uzumaki-san, we are to escort the two of you as well as the forbidden scroll back to the Hokage." Yuugao said.

Both nodded and followed the two Anbu back to Konoha where Iruka hoped that Naruto wouldn't get into too much trouble after they explained the situation to the Sandaime. It didn't take them long to reach the walls of Konoha where all four stopped before Tenzo placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder and the four shushin'ed to the Hokage's office. The four appeared in a puff of smoke before Tenzo and Yuugao retreated into the shadows to watch the proceedings. Iruka and Naruto had expected the Sandaime to be angered at Naruto but the age kage had a proud smile as he gazed at his surrogate grandson. He had watched the entire event from when Naruto had first arrived in the clearing so he knew the full story of what took place. He was proud of Naruto but at the same time he was curious of the two blades that Naruto possessed. It reminded him the sword that Minato had used before but at the same time it's abilities where vastly different. However, he would worry about that later because now he had to resolve the current situation.

"Tiger, inform all members of the search party that the forbidden scroll of sealing has been recovered." Sarutobi ordered.

A quick "hai" was his response as Tenzo shushin'ed away to carry out his assigned task before things got even more out of hand.

Hiruzen focused back on Naruto. "Naruto-kun, please explain to me why you chose to steal the forbidden scroll of sealing."

Naruto as he began explaining the events from Mizuki approaching him after the academy up until his defeat of the traitor with Iruka supplying his own input. (I'm too lazy to write out all the details but you know the story from canon.) Hiruzen nodded even though he was aware that Naruto had neglected to mention the fact that he had copied a few jutsu but they we're anything dangerous so he would allow him to keep them. He knew the boy would exercise caution when it came down to learning the jutsu so he wasn't to particularly worried about him hurting himself.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun and I would like to congratulate on your first A-rank mission by stopping Mizuki from escaping with the forbidden scroll." Sarutobi said with pride.

Naruto flashed him a foxy grin which caused Iruka to ruffle his hair, affectionately causing the Blond to pout. Hiruzen couldn't help feeling proud of those that had come to accept his surrogate grandson but he had other matters to speak to the Blond at the moment. He cleared his throat to gain the full attention of the two nins before him and once he had their attention he shifted his focus to Iruka.

"Iruka, I'm grateful of all of your assistance tonight but you should hurry to the hospital to get treated for your injuries. I'm surprised you haven't passed out from blood loss but I can't have one of my shinobi neglecting to get properly treated. I have some things to discuss with Naruto-kun so get yourself patched up immediately." Sarutobi ordered.

Iruka nodded and with a quick shushin he was gone leaving only Naruto, Sarutobi, and Yuugao in the office. The aged kage sent a meaningful glance to Yuugao who quickly performed a privacy jutsu. Sarutobi returned his gaze back to Naruto, who seemed to understand the seriousness of the situation as he had dropped his cheerful mask. His blue eyes stared at the Hokage in a calculating manner and Hiruzen knew this was the true Naruto that he had come to know.

"I take it that now that I'm a genin of Konoha that you have some things to discuss with me, jiji?" Naruto asked in a monotone.

Sarutobi nodded. "Naruto-kun, don't you think that it's about time that you dropped your mask? I know that you feel that you need it in order for you to be accepted by the citizens of the village but you are now a fully instated ninja of the village. You no longer needed to hide your skills as much as you used to."

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea, jiji. If everyone thinks that I'm getting stronger then, they will have more reason to hate me. Now that I know about the Kyuubi I'm even more afraid to let others see the real me. It was bad enough I had to hide my skills during the academy so that the instructors would stop trying so hard to sabotage me. Now that I'm a ninja I don't want my teammates to get involved should the council try to send me on a mission that may get me killed." Naruto replied.

'_He's probably still thinking of what happened to Kanae all of those years ago and still blames himself for what happened. However, I will no longer allow that bigotry of this village to stunt Naruto from being the shinobi that Minato wanted him to be.' _Hiruzen thought.

"You won't have to worry about that Naruto-kun since I will personally being handing out such missions and I will override any attempts by the council. However, I believe you continue to hide your skills then, it will make it harder for you to gain the acceptance of others. It will come a time when you will have to reveal all of the skills that you have been taught and others will need to know how you operate in order for you to form an effective team. After all, we base our principals on teamwork in order to successfully complete a mission or have you forgotten all of your lessons." Hiruzen said then, smirked. "Don't forget that if you want to take my job then, you have to show that you possess wisdom as well as strength to handle the title of Hokage."

Naruto sighed. "Being Hokage is still my dream but I'm scared of what others think of me, jiji. I've tried so hard to be accepted for something I never knew of but now that I know why everyone hated me for so long I'm even more terrified to show the real me. I know that fear and hatred came make people do irrational things that was why I created my mask to make people realize I wasn't a threat to them. If it wasn't for you and the others that helped me when I was younger then, I don't know where I would be right now."

"I understand what you mean but I want you to have faith in others, Naruto-kun. After all you can't go through life by yourself if you truly want to survive long enough to reach your dreams." Sarutobi said.

Naruto paused to consider the words of the elderly kage. He knew that his surrogate grandfather was right and he was really tired of hiding behind his mask. He had been hiding behind it for so long that sometimes it was hard to distinguish the true Naruto Uzumaki from the happy go lucky persona that he had created. Maybe if he let his mask slip just a little a bit then, he could see if others would accept him for who he truly was. Taking a deep breath, Naruto focused his gaze on the Sandaime as he came to a decision that would ultimately affect his future in Konoha.

"Okay, jiji, I'll do it and show others who I truly am but only a little at first until I feel that I've come to truly trust my comrades." Naruto said with his foxy grin. "Besides, it will be fun to show everyone that they can't just push me around anymore."

Sarutobi smiled. "That's all that I ask that you do Naruto-kun. Now, you've had a pretty long night so I suggest that you go home and get some rest. Team selection will be in one week so use that time as you see fit to prepare yourself for your new lifestyle."

Naruto nodded and once more smiled at his surrogate grandfather before turning to exit the office to get some much needed rest. Once the blond was gone, Yuugao released the jutsu before appearing from the shadows to stand before the Sandaime. Hiruzen released a heavy sigh as he thought of all the events that forced Naruto to adopt that mask in the first place. Turning his gaze to the cat masked Anbu as he knew that she had her own views to contribute about Naruto's situation and wanted to hear what she had to say.

"So, what do you think about all of this?" Sarutobi asked.

"It's hard to say, Hokage-sama. Naruto has become quite strong over the years both mentally as well as physically. I still greatly respect him for being able to put up with all the abuse over the years and remain loyal to the village. I'm not sure I could've gone through the same as him and not use the power of the Kyuubi to destroy this entire village. His character is what has gained the respect of myself as well as much of the Anbu and other shinobi of Konoha." Yuugao replied.

Sarutobi nodded. "The civilians just don't realize how many close calls they had to having the Yondaime's seal break when Naruto was younger. It was only by his sheer will to live that kept the beast contained for as long as he has been. The power of a jinchuuriki is all upon the mental state of the container to hold but the beast that it sealed within them. It doesn't help that Naruto is possession of the most powerful Bijuu to ever walk across the elemental nations."

"You are correct, Hokage-sama. It is because of Naruto-kun's determination that I believe that one day he will become a great shinobi. I just hope the day never comes that he ever decided to turn on the village." Yuugao said.

Sarutobi sighed. "If such an event were to ever happen then, I don't believe that even I would be able to stop Naruto-kun if he continues to grow at the rate that he has over the years. However, as long as he has those that are precious to him then I will continue to place my faith in the boy since he is the Yondaime's legacy."

Yuugao nodded her head in agreement and with a wave of his hand, she shushin'ed away to attend to other duties. Hiruzen turned his attention to the paperwork on his desk which happened to be the team placements for the genin that had been given to him by Iruka. He realized that because of Naruto's status as the dead-last that it would require him to be placed with the top rookie and top kunoichi of his class. That meant that he would've been paired with Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno and had the unfortunate affect making Kakashi his Jounin sensei since he was the only one capable of training the Uchiha in the use of his sharingan when it awakened. However, Hiruzen decided that if he was going to give Naruto a fair shot at growing as shinobi then he would have to change the setup of the teams.

'_Now, who do I believe Naruto-kun can truly benefit having as his teammates and Jounin instructor?'_ Hiruzen thought.

Sarutobi thought on the matter for a few moments before a sudden idea came to him as a grin similar to Naruto's own foxy grins appeared on his face. He had the perfect team that he hoped would provide Naruto with a stable environment to grow as a shinobi. Plus, sense there were quite a few that had expressed their desire to be his Jounin-sensei then he had an idea to address that matter as well.

'_All I have to do now is sit back and wait to see if they will work alongside Naruto as I hope they will since they have never harbored any negative feelings towards him.' _Hiruzen thought with a grin as he was quite pleased with his decision.

He could only hope that this generation of shinobi could truly surpass the older generation and keep the will of fire going strong so that the future of Konoha will remain as bright as he envisioned it would be with individuals that made up Naruto's generation to push it forward to a new era.

* * *

A/N: Well, that takes care of my first chapter and here's a little background info about my story. I haven't decided if this will be a complete Naruto/Bleach crossover as of yet and if so how much I'll have the two interweave with each other. Obviously, this isn't your typical Naruto where he uses the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu way too much, rushes into a battle blindly and is a complete idiot. In this story, he's smart, fast, strong, and is hiding more than he lets on. If you don't like the fact that Naruto or the others will be ooc at times then, I hope you remember that this is fanfiction so I am allowed to be creative in my approach.

As I stated earlier, Naruto will receive a harem since he deserves one for all the times that he has been dealt a bad hand by his burden. The girls have already been chosen but I may add or remove girls if I feel that I can't work them into the plot in a way that would make it believable.

The next chapter will have Naruto getting acquainted with the spirits of his swords as well as the announcement of the genin teams and their Jounin-sensei's. There will be some character interaction and maybe some character bashing. Please read and review since I want to hear what you think of my first attempt at a Naruto fanfic.


	2. Adaptations and Teams

Naruto: Konoha's Shinigami

Chapter 2: Adaptation and Teams

By: Terror of the Azure Flame

Disclaimer:

I don't own Naruto because Kishimoto does. If I did then Naruto wouldn't have to deal with the king of 'emo' and he would be a god among men.

Summary:

During Naruto's fight against Mizuki he dies but Kyuubi saves him by unlocking a power not seen since the Yondaime Hokage. What is the secret behind the two blades Naruto now possesses and what other secrets lay behind his new power and abilities? This will be a Naruto/Bleach crossover and a Narutoxharem with character bashing.

"Talking" normal talk

_'Thinking' _normal people thinking

"**Blah!" **Bijuu/summon talk or yelling (or Gai and Lee)

_**'Blah!' **_Bijuu/summon thinking

* * *

Naruto once again found himself in his mindscape or as the spirits of Hyôrinmaru and Senbonzakura had identified it as his 'inner world'. A place where the soul of a human and the spirits of his or her sword or zanpaktou interact with each other in a spiritual sense. As he made his way across the snow covered ground over to the small forest of Sakura trees he wondered why he was able to keep warm despite what should've been subzero temperatures. He shrugged the thought away as he made his way into the forest of Sakura trees in search of his spirit companions. As he rounded a tree he could see Senbonzakura standing beneath a Sakura tree that stood a few feet taller than the others but couldn't see Hyôrinmaru anywhere at the moment. Senbonzakura smiled, warmly at the blond and Naruto felt his cheeks warm up under the gaze of the beautiful woman.

"Hello again, Naruto-kun. I'm glad that I was able to be of service to you earlier in your fight against that traitor." Senbonzakura said.

Naruto smiled. "I should be thanking you since if it wasn't for you and Hyôrinmaru I would've been dead right now."

The dark-haired spirit shook her head at his statement. "No, the likely chance of you dieing was quite low since Kyuubi would've ensured your survival just as it always had over the years. After all, Kyuubi was able to protect you when neither I nor Hyôrinmaru could use our power to aide you. Despite its fearsome reputation Kyuubi has granted you with the ability to heal from almost any wound thanks to the youki that flows through your chakra pathways."

"What exactly do you mean by that?" The blond asked, tilting his head to the side.

"By being the container of a Bijuu you are granted certain abilities that are unique to each Bijuu. Because of the Shiki Fujin that was used the Kyuubi had to ensure that your body was capable of handling its power or you would've died because of all the youki that flowed through you. The nature of the seals that made up the Shiki Fujin ensured that the power of the Kyuubi no youko would slowly be converted to your own but something was not accounted for during the sealing process." Senbonzakura explained.

"What was the problem? Does it have anything to do with the fact that Kyuubi is supposed to be the strongest of the Bijuu?" Naruto asked.

"That is part of the problem but that is not all." The voice of Hyôrinmaru said as he descended from the sky.

Naruto merely waited for the dragon to explain as he coiled his massive serpentine body around the area where he and Senbonzakura stood. Hyôrinmaru brought head around the Sakura tree to position himself a bit away from Senbonzakura as he gazed at Naruto.

"The problem was that with the fact that you had already had both of us inhabiting your body caused an influx of power when the Kyuubi was added to the equation. When we were sealed along with the Kyuubi your spiritual energy or Reiryoku was sealed away as well. This was why you have such horrible chakra control issues because all you had was the physical aspect of chakra at your disposal and very little spiritual." Hyôrinmaru explained.

"So, now that both of you are here does it mean that my chakra control will be better that it was before, right?" Naruto asked.

His chakra control had been a major issue for a long time despite all of the chakra control exercises that he had learned. His chakra control was about mid-genin level at best and that was only if he had to use jutsu that required a lot of chakra. Even though he possessed a lot of chakra he knew that this caused him to waste a lot of extra whenever he performed any technique.

"The answer to the question would be yes as well as no. Despite the fact that you now have access to your Reiryoku once again that also mean that your chakra reserves have also expanded far more than you previously had. This also means that you will have to work even harder to gain better control over your chakra if you are to reach an optimum level of strength. We will work with you to gain control over your chakra will also showing you techniques that will require use of your Reiryoku only." Hyôrinmaru replied.

Naruto sighed. "Well, I should've expected that I would have to work hard in order to get stronger but that's nothing new to me. I've been working hard for my strength all of my life and that won't stop me now since if I want to reach my dreams then I have to be the strongest there is."

Both spirits smiled at Naruto's determination to earn his own power and were glad that they were bound to the soul of one as unique as him. Sharing a brief glance between each other both decided it was time that Naruto met the Kyuubi since the great kitsune had expressed a desire to meet its container.

"Naruto, I believe that it is time that you met the Kyuubi. There is much that the two of you need to discuss and if you are to get stronger you will need its help as well. After all that was the intention of having the Kyuubi sealed within in the first place. If the two of you can come to a compromise it will be beneficial to all of us in the end." Senbonzakura said.

Naruto cocked his head to the side. "How do I contact the Kyuubi in the first place? I was only able to come here because you told me how by remembering this place but I've never met Kyuubi before."

"This is your mind and all you need to do is think of the Kyuubi and you will be taken there." Hyôrinmaru said.

Naruto nodded and closed his eyes as he focused on finding the Kyuubi no Youko that resided within him. He used the knowledge that he had gained from the academy to imagine the image of a crimson nine-tailed fox that stood taller than the Hokage tower and felt a tug at the back of his mind. When the feeling had passed Naruto waited a few moments before he opened his eyes. To say he was disappointed at what he saw would be a serious understatement. The young Uzumaki found himself in a sewer much like the ones that ran underneath Konoha that he had used to escape from mobs of villagers when he was younger. This was before he had learned how to defend himself after some of the Anbu from his security detail had begun training him. Returning to the task at hand, Naruto noticed a red glow coming from one of the many corridors that branched away from the main path and made his way towards it. Once he reached the glow he paused for a moment as he felt a malevolent rage but at the same time he felt an underlying emotion of sadness and surprisingly affection wash over him. He wondered about that as he walked into the glow that caused a soft tingling sensation as if someone was running a feather along his skin. As the glow faded from his vision Naruto found himself in a huge room that led to a massive gate that with a single piece of paper with the kanji for seal. He guessed this had to be the cage that held the Kyuubi contained within him as viewed by his inner world and made his way over to the bars.

'_I wonder what exactly I should be expecting when I actually talk to the Kyuubi. From all the stories it should be a giant kitsune that only knows destruction but the feelings I'm getting are confusing to say the least.' _Naruto thought.

He was a few feet away from the cage when a pair of crimson slitted eyes snapped open right before a massive claw shot between the bars to impale him. Naruto had not been expecting such a reaction and the claw would've struck him if not for the timely appearance of Sakura petals that blocked the claw. As the claw was repelled, Naruto felt a pair of slender arms encircle his frame as well as an ample set of mounds press into his back causing him to blush. Senbonzakura held Naruto close as a frown marred her otherwise gentle features as she gazed into the darkness of the cage. A moment later, Hyôrinmaru also appeared coiled around Naruto as he hovered in a protective manner of his chosen partner. Naruto was grateful that the two were still here with him while at the same time chastised himself for letting his guard down against the Kyuubi.

"**So, my container finally decides to grace me with his presence. What is it that brings you here to see me, Kit?" **Kyuubi's deep voiced echoed around the room.

"You stupid fox, what was the big idea trying to attack me just now? Unless you forget if something happens to me then, you're gone as well." Naruto snapped. He really didn't like how Kyuubi seemed to be talking down to him.

"**You dare to speak to me in such a manner, ningen! Unless you have forgotten it is only because of me that you are still alive till this day since your so called partners could do nothing till after your near death experience. You should be grateful that I even put forth the effort to keep you alive in the first place. After all, I am the Kyuubi no Youko and you would do well to remember that." **Kyuubi's angry growl caused the room to shake, slightly.

Naruto was quickly becoming fed up with those that seemed to think that they were somehow superior to him. It was bad enough that the villagers treated him like he was no better than the dirt they walked on and now Kyuubi was about to be added to the long list.

"I don't really care who are. You seem to forget that because of you attacking the village and being sealed in that all my problems started in the first place. If you never came then, I could've probably had a family instead of being an orphan and grew up with a happier childhood. So, the way that I see it since you're living in my body then, you better start paying rent by helping me get stronger." Naruto said, his anger rising.

Kyuubi was shocked for a moment. _"It would seem that there is more to this kit than I originally thought. He has the same type of inner strength that I witnessed in my battle with the Yondaime Hokage. With me being sealed within him it would stain my reputation if my vessel were to be seen as weak by the other demon lords. However, he is already quite strong and with his determination he will only get stronger.'_

Kyuubi gazed at the three figures before its cage for a moment longer before finally coming to a decision. Naruto could only watch as Kyuubi began to glow with crimson light before its form began to shrink in upon itself. He was confused by this and watched as the light began to take on a more definite human shape but his greatest shock came as he realized that the shape was that of a woman. When the glow faded he could only gape in wide-eyed shock at what he was seeing from behind the bars of the cage.

"Y-yo-you're a girl!" Naruto exclaimed in shock.

Hyôrinmaru and Senbonzakura could only chuckle since they had already known this but it was amusing to see Naruto's reaction. Kyuubi stood around the same height as Senbonzakura and in Naruto's opinion just as beautiful. Her crimson hair flowed down to center of her back as she stared at Naruto with crimson, slitted eyes. She was dressed in a crimson kimono with flame-like wisps designs across it and tied with an even darker red obi. Her skin was slightly tanned and he also noticed a pair fox ears atop her head as well as nine crimson tails gently swaying behind her. She flashed him a grin to show a pair of prominent fangs while she folded her arms beneath her sizeable bust.

"Why is that you humans always believe that I'm a male just because I'm considered the strongest of the Bijuu? I should almost feel insulted but I guess it can't be help since you ningen are quite ignorant of the world around you. Besides, I prefer this form much more since my kitsune form is really only meant for battle against others of my stature." Kyuubi spoke in a soft, melodious voice.

Naruto was about to snap off a retort when he was interrupted by Hyôrinmaru's deep voice. "That is quite enough, Kyuubi-sama! We came so that we can come to an agreement and to make Naruto aware of all that you've done to him. After all, I doubt that you would've gone through all this trouble in the first place."

"You are quite correct in your assumptions. I had long since made some adjustments to the kit's body as he has long since gained my respect for his actions up till this point in time. I made several adjustments in preparations of the day that he would regain the ability to use both of you but I wasn't exactly sure if he was worthy until he showed me that he would work hard for his own strength. Despite the teachings of those that protected him he always chose to do things to the hard way so that it would produce better results for him." Kyuubi replied.

"Do you mind telling me exactly what you did to me? If you have so much faith in me then, I want to at least give you the benefit of the doubt." Naruto said.

Kyuubi was once again shocked by Naruto's behavior as she was still getting used to him not hiding behind that idiotic mask of his. A vulpine grin appeared on her features that caused a shiver to run up Naruto's spine.

"You truly due interest me, Naruto Uzumaki. I will tell you of what I've done to your body to truly make you a vessel worthy of my power. Since youki is not meant to be handled by humans since its demonic nature is far more potent than your human chakra I had to make sure that you could handle my power. Whenever I healed your injuries I made sure to adjust your to make it stronger than before. Your bone structure is three times as dense making them harder to break while I've increased the elasticity of your muscles to endow you with more physical strength without the aid of chakra. You may have noticed these changes already as well as your heightened senses although not quite the level of a full demon. I've widened your chakra pathways to allow more of my chakra to mix with your own. By doing this I've forced the purification seals to work over time to convert my youki into chakra. As it stands now you have drained the equivalent of two tails of my chakra from me." Kyuubi said.

"Hold on a minute! If I've drained that much from you then, why do you still have nine tails instead of seven? I thought the seal was designed to drain your power away and make it mine until you had no more and died." Naruto exclaimed.

"Kit, I am considered an immortal being for a reason. Despite the fact that you have my power I will always retain my tails while in your mindscape. Once you have drained my power I will simply be returned to Makai where I will be reborn again. This was the pact that was made between myself and Shinigami-sama when I was sealed. If I were to simply cease to exist then, it would cause as sort of imbalance in the world. However, don't bother to question me on that since I won't tell you anymore. I may respect you but there are things that you will never understand about this world." Kyuubi paused for a moment to allow to him digest what she said. "Since you will be gaining my power you with have to constantly work to keep a decent amount of control over your chakra. Because of the mixture of my youki into your pathways your chakra shall become more potent but not as potent as pure youki. You will eventually possess chakra similar to that of a kitsune hanyou."

"So, does this mean that I will one day gain tails and such that would make me look like you or more fox than human?" Naruto inquired.

"You will gain tails but not until you perform a certain ritual which I won't perform until you have gain about four tails worth of my youki. I must admit you are taking all of this better than I would've expected. I sometimes forget that you are much more intelligent than you let on since I had to bear witness to that insufferable false persona of yours for so many years now." Kyuubi said which caused Naruto to frown. "Lastly, I've given you a sort of bloodline when it comes down to your healing so I wouldn't have to use so much of my own chakra to heal you. That is only one part of the bloodline and I will reveal the rest to you when I deem that you are ready to now. I would tell you more but I time grows short and I've grown weary of this little conversation of ours. If you need to reach me simply return here and I may answer your questions if I feel like. However, don't get the wrong idea that I suddenly like you. I just prefer to make our current arrangement more bearable by trying to co-exist with you. You are still merely a human and while you have gained my respect you still have a long way to go to prove that you are worthy of being my vessel. If such a time comes I may even allow you to call me by true name." Kyuubi finished.

"I thought your name was Kyuubi but the way you say I'm guess that it's more of a title to your position as the queen of the Bijuu." Kyuubi nodded. "Well, I hope that one day we can truly come to the point where we can get along and I will do everything that I can to prove myself worthy of being your vessel, Kyuubi-hime." Naruto said with a grin.

Kyuubi glared at him. "Don't push your luck with me, kit. If I so choose I can use my youki to harm as well as heal you. Now, leave me be so that I may get so rest and I hope you can provide me with some ample entertainment in the near future."

Naruto continued to grin as he was aware that he managed to get past the seemingly regal persona of Kyuubi which he wasn't surprised since she was the queen of the Bijuu after all. He didn't have much more time to think about as with a simple wave of her hand he was removed from his mindscape. After being quiet for so long, both spirits focused their full attention onto Kyuubi.

"I am quite suspicious of your willingness to assist, Naruto-kun. I hope you don't have any ideas of trying to free yourself from the seal by using him." Senbonzakura said with a frown.

"If that becomes the case then, we will use our own power to subdue if need be." Hyôrinmaru added.

"I am willing to assist the kit since I have had firsthand view of his life since the time of my sealing. The way that has been treated is something that we demons would never do to one of our own. Humans call all demons evil but they possess a taint that would rival even the foulest of demons. I have lived amongst the humans for quite some time to have seen the evil acts that humans can perform. It may also be because that in a way I've come to see Naruto as my own kit. If that is the reason then, it would only be natural for a mother to make sure that her young can truly survive on his own when I'm no longer around. I may be a demon lord but I am not as malevolent as the humans have come to make me out to be." Kyuubi replied.

"Will you ever tell Naruto the true reason as to why you attacked Konoha?" Hyôrinmaru asked.

"Maybe when I feel that he can handle the truth and only then shall I tell my kit what truly happened that day." Was Kyuubi's only reply.

With no more to say the three spirits once more returned to their own little corner of Naruto's mindscape until he needed them.

The buzzing of his alarm clock drew Naruto to the world of consciousness as his hand lashed out to silence the infernal noise. Mentally reminding himself to purchase a new clock, the blond slowly opened his eyes as the haze of sleep was blinked away before rising from his bed. He made his way to the bathroom to go through his normal morning ritual. He was halfway through brushing his teeth when he noted a few peculiarities about his appearance. The most notable was that he seemed to be taller by several inches as well as more muscular judging from the tightness of his shirt. His blond hair seemed to a bit darker as well as long enough that bangs framed his face. He had lost a lot of the baby fat giving him a more rugged as well as feral look since his pupils appeared to be slitted much like Kyuubi's while his whisker marks were darker.

'_What the hell?' _Naruto thought in surprise.

'**These are some of the changes that I've made to you, Kit. While you were asleep I had surrounded you in a cocoon of my youki while your two partners used your Reiryoku to mask its presence. This allowed me to make the necessary adjustments to your body while you were asleep. These changes were necessary to account for your increase in chakra otherwise your body would've exploded from the sudden influx caused by the restoration of your Reiryoku.' **Kyuubi replied.

'_Well, I guess that I have something else to thank you for, Kyuubi-hime.'_ Naruto responded, mentally.

'**If you continue with this hime business then, I will do something most unpleasant to your being.'** Kyuubi snapped.

Naruto resisted the urge to laugh as he finished up before heading back to his room to put on some clothes. He took a brief glance at his orange jumpsuit before dismissing it as he headed over to his closet. Despite what many thought he possessed more clothing that his trademark jumpsuit which he had worn as a part of his mask. Luckily, he had an outfit that had been given to him by the Sandaime for his tenth birthday that had been too big for him at the time. He guessed that with his recent increase in height it should properly fit him now. His new outfit consisted of a pair of dark blue Anbu-style pants with multiple pockets for carry scrolls as well as a dark blue short-sleeve shirt with the same spiral design as the ones on his jumpsuit. A pair of ankle bands that acting as chakra weights were placed underneath his pants to replace his old ones. Underneath the shirt he wore fishnet armor that came down to about mid forearm. Over his forearms was a pair of lightweight guards that were actually chakra weights. Black shinobi sandals replaced his original blue with white bandages that wrapped his heels and extended into his pants. His kunai holder was strapped to his right leg while his shuriken pouch was attached to the back of his waist along his left side. Smiling, he put on the hitai-ate that Iruka had given him and secured around his forehead to keep his bangs out of his eyes. Lastly, his gaze shifted over to a simple red box on his dresser which contained a special gift from a dear friend. Slowly, opening the box he gazed that at the necklace with a simple pendant of an angel with a sorrowful expression.

'_Kanae-chan, I'm sorry for what happened to you and hope to see you again one day. Until that day I will keep my promise and grow strong.'_ Naruto thought.

Placing the necklace around his neck Naruto walked over to his swords and grasped them before securing them. He had acquired a strap to attach to Hyôrinmaru's sheath so that he could place it on his back within easy reach of his right hand while Senbonzakura was placed in his belt along his left side. Making sure that he had everything before the young blond left his apartment while locking it via the security seals that had been installed by the Sandaime. Bounding across the roofs of building he made his way to his own personal training grounds. He had an entire week to train to work on his skills as much as he could and he wasn't about to waste a single minute. It would be during this time Naruto would learn just how beneficial kage bunshins will become to his training.

* * *

_**One week later…..**_

Naruto stood before the gates of the academy with a slight frown on his face he contemplated what he was about to do. Today would be the day the he dropped his mask to everyone for the first time in seven years and show them what kind of shinobi he truly was. He was dressed in the same outfit that the Sandaime had given him after the aged kage had given him several more copies of the outfit after complimenting him on how good he looked.

'_Well, might as well get this over with and learn who my teammates and sensei is going to be.'_ Naruto thought as he made his way inside.

Upon arriving in the classroom, he noticed that only a few other students were there ahead him. Looking up towards the upper rows he noticed the pineapple-shaped hairstyle of Shikamaru Nara and his best friend Chouji Akimichi. Shikamaru had his head down on the desk in an attempt to gain some extra sleeps while Chouji was munching on a bag of chips. This was normal for the two friends so he dismissed them as he made his way up the rows to sit himself near the window at mid-level. He closed his eyes as he waited for the other graduates and entered a meditative state that both Hyôrinmaru and Senbonzakura had taught him. This allowed him to focus and get more in tune with his Reiryoku as well as gain a better grasp of the flow of his chakra. He had only been meditating for a few minutes when a loud voice broke his focus.

"Hey dobe, what do you think you're doing here? Today is for those that actually passed the graduation exam and you failed, remember?" The loud voice of Kiba Inuzuka drew everyone's attention to Naruto. Akamaru gave a bark of agreement.

At first, Kiba didn't recognize Naruto due his change in wardrobe but once he caught his sent he knew that it was the dead-last of their class. He, like the rest of the class once they recognized Naruto, was wondering why the blond was here when he knew that he had failed the exam. Naruto slowly opened his eyes to stare at Kiba before lifting his hand to indicate his hitai-ate on his forehead.

"Unless you forgot how to use your eyes I have a hitai-ate so that means that I passed. I was given a make-up exam by Iruka-sensei so that's why I'm a shinobi now." Naruto said in a monotone.

Shikamaru had raised his head during Kiba's shout and was gazing at the blond with a calculating gaze. He was wondering why the blond was dressed and acting differently than normal. The Naruto that he knew would've yelled at Kiba or try to start a fight but now he was calm and relaxed. It reminded the young Nara of how he had seen his father as well as many of the elder shinobi acted.

"Kiba, why don't you stop being so troublesome? If you want you can ask Iruka-sensei when he gets here if Naruto is telling the truth. If he's lying then, he'll have to leave so be quiet all of your shouting is ruining my nap time." Shikamaru drawled out.

Kiba huffed as he pulled Akamaru from his perch atop his head as he found a seat while throwing glares at Naruto. The blond gave a brief nod towards Shikamaru before going back into his meditative trance to pass the time away. Shikamaru saw this and once again wondered what brought on these changes in the normally loud and hyperactive blond. He pushed the thought aside to figure out later as his head once again dropped down to rest atop his folded arms.

One by one student continued to pile into the classroom with some taking note of the blond while others dismissed him. Eventually one Hinata Hyuga entered the room with a saddened expression. The reason for this was because she knew that her precious Naruto-kun would not be a part of this year's graduation exam. She had desperately wanted for him to pass so that she may gain the chance to be on the same team with her crush. His failure was a major blow to her confidence since she had always used Naruto as her pillar of strength. With his final failure he would lose the chance to become a shinobi and have to remain a civilian which wouldn't allow her many opportunities to see him anymore.

As she neared her chosen seat a flash of blond hair drew her attention and as she shifted her gaze she couldn't help but gasp as she saw Naruto sitting there. A bright crimson blush appeared on her face as she gazed at her crush sitting on the opposite side of the room. He was dressed differently than before she could swear that he appeared to be a bit taller but he seemed to be even more handsome in her opinion. She continued to gaze at him for quite some time as she took in more of his features and committed them to memory.

'_If Naruto-kun is here then, doesn't that mean that he passed the exam but I thought he failed? If this is a dream then, I don't want to be woken up right now.' _Hinata thought, still blushing.

Maybe this would give her another chance to get closer to the one that she admires most but she wondered if she could ever work up the courage to speak to him. A few whispers reached her ears and she realized that many of the girls in the classroom where making comparisons to Naruto and Sasuke. This immediately angered the Hyuga heiress as they only now began to notice Naruto for the handsome person that he was and had the nerve to compare her Naruto-kun to Sasuke.

'_They better not get any ideas of trying to go after my Naruto-kun.' _Hinata thought, angrily.

Her blush increased to a new level as she realized that she had thought of Naruto as hers and with great effort resisted the urge to faint. Quickly taking a seat, she tried to focus her thoughts away from the handsome blond but it was all futile as her thoughts quickly became perverted. If anyone had been looking at the pale-eyed girl they would've noticed her wiping away a minor nosebleed. She was saved any other form of embarrassment as she heard a low rumble coming down the halls and knew of only two people that could be the cause. Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno, co-founders of the Sasuke Uchiha fan club and best friends turned rivals for said boy's attention. A moment later, both girls were both trying to force their way into the classroom at the same time.

"Ha, I made it first Ino-pig so I get to sit by Sasuke-kun." Sakura proclaimed.

"Get real, billboard-brow. My toe beat you by a whole centimeter so I'm the one that's going to set next to Sasuke-kun." Ino snapped back.

"What did you say, Ino-pig?" Sakura hollered.

"You heard me, billboard-brow!" Ino replied.

"Ino-pig!"

"Billboard-brow!"

"Ino-pig!"

"Billboard-brow!"

The class groaned as the two girls continued to argue as the made there way over to where the Uchiha was sitting. Still in his meditative trance was unaware that Sasuke had taken the seat to his left the placed him directly by the window. The raven-haired youth had used Naruto's position to block off any attempts by his fangirls to sit next to him. The problem was that he knew that when it came down to Sakura the blond would instantly do whatever she said. He had noted Naruto's change in appearance and already knew why he was here after overhearing some of the other students talking about him. Despite, the changes the blond seemed to have made in his wardrobe Sasuke still disregarded him as mere annoyance in his presence. At one point in time he had wanted to consider Naruto a rival but after having witnessing his pathetic skills he decided against that. If he were to consider Naruto a rival then, he would only get weaker by competing against such an unworthy opponent and never get strong enough to defeat Itachi in order avenge his clan and regain their honor. Noticed the arrival of his most annoying fangirls, Sasuke schooled his features into his trademark mask of indifference as he stared straight ahead at the blackboard.

Ino and Sakura made their way up the steps and stopped at the row that Sasuke was sitting at. Upon noticing that Naruto was sitting between them and her goal, Sakura grew angry at the blond as she completely disregarded Naruto's change in attire as an attempt to be cool like her Sasuke-kun. Ino, on the other hand, took note of Naruto's appearance and a memory came to her of a younger Naruto before he began wearing that hideous orange jumpsuit and became a loudmouth idiot. The Naruto from then was one that didn't back down from anyone and had befriended both her and Sakura before the two had begun their rivalry over Sasuke. It was this Naruto that she had gained a crush on because of his bad boy behavior but it ended when he changed. This was also the reason why she tried for Sasuke since he reminded of that Naruto only with a lot of angst.

"Naruto, move out of the way so that I can sit next to Sasuke-kun!" Sakura demanded.

When Naruto made no reaction that he had heard her caused everyone to be shocked by his actions. They were all aware of the major crush that he had on the pink-haired Haruno and would do anything that she said as if he were her little puppy. If they only knew how much that had been a part of his mask that he had chosen to get rid of they wouldn't have been surprised by his next actions. Since Naruto made no move to get out of her way Sakura decided to handle Naruto in the same way that she always did when he tended to annoy by using violence.

Rearing back her fist. "I SAID MOVE OUT OF MY WAY, NARUTO-BAKA!"

She as well as everyone else was surprised when Naruto's right hand shot up and caught her fist but he even more surprising was the fact that his hand didn't move upon impact or that his eyes had remained closed the entire time. Not seeming to notice the reactions of his fellow classmates of his sudden action against the pink haired kunoichi Naruto addressed Sakura.

"What makes you assume that I should move just because you tell me to, Haruno-san? I was here before Sasuke and it was his decision to sit by me not mine." His eyes slowly opened to regard the girl. "I can see that there are plenty more seats for you to take so I suggest that you leave me alone. I'm not going to move from this seat and if you try to hit me again I will make you regret it for your foolishness." Naruto said in his monotone.

Sakura was totally shocked that her puppy wasn't listening to her and had actually threatened her while nor calling her Sakura-chan like he always did. This was not the way things were supposed to be between her and Naruto Uzumaki. He was supposed to always listen to whatever she said and be there whenever she needed to vent her frustrations of make her feel better about herself with his declarations of love for her. Since so many of her classmates tended to pick on her because of her larger than average forehead it was the attention that Naruto gave her that gave her the confidence to face each day. Her shock slowly faded away to become anger that Naruto would dare do this to her and once again raised her hand to hit the blond. It was act that moment that many came to the realization that this was not the Naruto that they had attended school with them for the last six years.

In the blink of the eye, Naruto had stood and with amazing speed and moved behind Sakura to catch her fist while it was still reared back. Everyone was once again shocked since none of them had even seen the blond move as with a mere blink of an eye he was behind Sakura. Sakura whirled around to hit him with her free hand but this hand was also caught mere inches away from his face.

"Let go of me right now, Naruto-baka before I make you regret it." Sakura said, angrily.

Naruto didn't release her as he moved his hands to bring Sakura's hands closer to her body until he held them in a cross position against her chest as he uncrossed his. He peered down at the girl that was now shorter than him after his growth spurt which a lot of the others noticed and wondered how he had grown so much in just a week's time. Leaning forward until his face was a mere few inches from hers as she began to blush as she got a close up look of his new features and was nervous as she noticed his now slitted pupils.

"I regret very few things in my life and you are no threat to me, Haruno-san. I've warned you already and I'm giving you another chance to move along before I end up doing something to you that I will most definitely enjoy in order show you your place. You may think that I have some sort of crush on you but I can assure you that was never the case. After all, you were the one that cast me aside when we were younger to chase after the emo-king so why would I still care about someone as pathetic as you." Naruto said.

Sakura felt tears begin to build at the corners of her eyes at Naruto's words. She knew that she had threw Naruto's friendship away when they were younger but because of the way he continued to act she thought he had gotten over it. She turned her gaze away from him since she didn't want him to see how much his words had hurt her. Naruto didn't seem to care as he released her arms and pivoted on his heels as he moved to the opposite side of the room to get away from the pink-haired banshee. Noting the empty seat next to Hinata, he made his way over to her before sitting down and closing his eyes. He saw the blush on her face and knew that she had a crush on him. He would've gladly made a pass at her but because of what happened to Kanae he didn't dare do so. Even though she was the heiress of the Hyuga clan he knew that it would've caused problems because of the burden that he carried by being involved with her. She was easily one of the most beautiful girls in his class along with Ino and even Sakura but because of her status it put her out of his reach. That was why he had chosen Sakura to have a crush on when he had donned his mask since she was from a civilian family and no one would make such a big deal if he pursued her. Plus, since he allowed her to hit him so much it made the civilians more smug in the fact that he could be denied something else that would make him appear human in their eyes.

Ino had watched Naruto the entire time and felt the same feeling from before blossom within her chest. If this was her Naruto making his return then, she would let Sakura or any of the other girls have Sasuke. This was the boy that she had first fallen for and she knew that if she was going to get to him before someone else did then, she would have to make up for all the years she had been cruel to him and gain his friendship back as well as maybe more. She barely noticed as Sakura sat down the now vacant seat next to Sasuke with a dejected look on her face as she made her way closer to Naruto and took the vacant seat that was next to him.

"What was that all about, Naruto? I never would've thought that you would pull a Sasuke on Sakura like even if she did deserve it." Ino said.

"Are you trying to get me to apologize to her, Yamanaka-san?" Naruto asked without opening his eyes. "If you chose to act the same way she did then, you will receive the same treatment as her from me. I have no pity for her since like you said she deserved it for all the times she treated me cruelly in the past."

Ino shook her head. "Why would you think I'm trying to get you to apologize to her?"

"Because in the past whenever someone insulted Sakura you would stand up for her to get the other person to leave her alone even if she would turn on you afterwards and the two of you would then, have an argument. So, you can see why I'm expecting you to act that the same as you have in the past since you are just like her in trying to put me down in front of your precious Sasuke-kun." Naruto replied.

"What if I said that I've always been more interested in you than Sasuke?" Ino asked with a sexy smile.

Naruto didn't reply as at that moment Iruka entered the classroom. The brown-haired chuunin was surprised that the class wasn't as rowdy as it normally was but he was glad for the change of pace. He scanned the face of the genin hopefuls and was pleased to see Naruto but was surprised that he was sitting between Hinata and Ino instead of next to Sakura. He took a look at the pink-haired girl and saw the dejected look on her face as well as the glances that she shot towards Naruto and wondered what had happened before he arrived. He mentally shrugged as he addressed the classroom of students on what they should expect now that they had graduated from the academy. Naruto tuned him out since he had been long since made aware of what to expect due to his teachings from the Sandaime and his Anbu instructors. He only wanted to know who his teammates and sensei were so he could move on to the next step of his shinobi career.

(Skipping teams 1 through 6 since they are not important to the storyline.)

"Team 7 will be Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and Kiba Inuzuka. Your Jounin sensei will be Kakashi Hatake." Sasuke and Kiba groaned at being paired up with Sakura while the girl made no reaction to being on the same team as her crush.

"Team 8 will be Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuga, and Naruto Uzumaki. Your Jounin senseis will be Anko Mitarashi and Kurenai Yuhi." Iruka said before he was interrupted.

"Hey, how come the dead-last gets two sensei's but not Sasuke-kun?" a random fangirl asked.

"This was a decision made by Hokage-sama." Iruka replied. _'I hate that they allowed so many fangirls to enter the academy just for the chance to be next the last Uchiha.'_

"I bet he was given an extra sensei so they could train him to be a better shinobi. Doesn't matter how training he gets since he won't be a good a Sasuke-kun." Another random fangirl remarked.

Sasuke puffed out his chest upon hearing this while many of the boys groaned as they heard another 'Sasuke is the greatest' rant. Iruka expected Naruto to snap after hearing this but was surprised when he was met with silence. Glancing at his favorite student, he was surprised to see Naruto had his eyes closed as if meditating. He was even more surprised to see Hinata and even Ino as well as a few other girls glaring at the two girls that berated Naruto.

'_I guess Naruto's change in looks have given him a small fanclub. I'm not surprised to see Hinata glaring but Ino and the rest are a surprise. I wonder how this will all turn out if they all start going after Naruto like they do Sasuke.' _Iruka thought with a chuckle.

"As I was saying, there will be no team 9 since they are still in circulation from last year and finally, team 10 will be Chouji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara, and Ino Yamanaki. Your Jounin sensei will be Asuma Sarutobi." Iruka said. "I wish all of you good luck and I am proud to have been able to teach each one of you. Take a one our lunch and return here to meet your new senseis."

Students began to file out as many made their way to the roof to converse with their new teammates. Naruto got up and shifted his gaze over to Hinata who was blushing while poking her index fingers together before looking over towards Shino. The silent boy was facing away from them and was waiting for everyone else to leave before he made his own exit.

"Come on, Hinata-chan! I want to invite you and Shino to join me for lunch at Ichiraku ramen." Naruto said as he flashed her a foxy grin.

Hinata could only nod since she was still blushing over the fact that she was going to be on the same team as her crush. With all the chances that they would have to work together she could only hope that she would be able to work up the courage to confess her feelings to him. However, all thoughts of her future with Naruto came to a screeching halt when he suddenly grabbed her hand. With that simple contact all of the blood rushed to her head and she began to sway on her feet. Luckily, Naruto knew of her fainting spells and now without his mask he could act normally around her. Before Hinata could fall he had managed to scoop her up into his arms and held her bridal style. Unfortunately, that was the final stimuli needed to push Hinata into the blissful realm of unconsciousness. Naruto could only chuckle at the grin that Hyuga heiress was now sporting and could only imagine what the girl was thinking about at the moment. He could hear the melodious giggle of both Kyuubi and Senbonzakura echoing in his head and could only help but think of how cute all of her shyness made her. He was glad for all the lessons about relationships he received from the female Anbu that had taken time to help with his training over the years.

Lifting his gaze away from the girl in his arms, he found Shino staring at him with his hands jammed into the pockets of his oversize coat. Making his way over to where his teammate was standing with a grin plastered on his face.

"Since we're teammates how about you join me and Hinata for some ramen at Ichiraku so we can get to know each other better?" Naruto said.

Shino nodded. "I agree with your logic and would like to get to know both of you better so that we may establish a bond of trust. Since we will most likely having to place our lives in the hands of each other in the near future it would be best. I am also very curious in your change in behavior and my kikai say that your chakra is different as well."

"I'll tell you about it over lunch so let's hurry so that we can get back in time." Naruto replied as he began to walk away still carrying Hinata.

The Aburame followed his new teammates and it only took them a few minutes to roof hop to Ichiraku. Hinata was finally awakening when they arrived and blushed once again when she realized that Naruto was carrying her. She could easily feel the tone muscles of his arms and chest as they held her lithe body against him.

'_I can't believe that Naruto-kun is holding me like this. Come on don't faint again, Hinata. If you keep fainting then, Naruto-kun will think that you're some kind of pervert.'_ Hinata thought as she managed to calm herself with several deep breaths.

"Glad to see that you're awake, Hinata-chan." Naruto said with a smile

"T-Thank y-you, N-Na-Naruto-kun, I-I'm f-fine n-now." Hinata replied still blushing.

"Well, I glad that you're alright and hope you still want to join me and Shino for lunch, hime." Naruto said.

Hinata's blush deepened by several shades as she took several deep breaths in order to remain conscious. _'Naruto-kun called me hime. If I was brave enough I would hug him and kiss him right now but I would probably die of embarrassment if I were to do that now.'_

"Hey Naruto, who's your little girlfriend?" The loud boisterous voice of Teuchi called from the ramen stand.

Naruto placed Hinata onto her feet much to the displeasure of the lavender-eyed girl as he turned to meet one of his precious people. Hinata and Shino joined him as he took his regular stool with Shino on his left and Hinata on his right.

"How's it going, jiji and where's Ayame-chan?" Naruto inquired.

"Everything's just fine now that my number one customer is here and Ayame should be in the back at the moment." Teuchi was about to call out to her when a blur came from around the corner of the stand.

Naruto barely had a chance to prepare himself before he was engulfed in a hug by Ayame much to the growing displeasure of Hinata. Shino's hive was buzzing as the telltale sign of anger could be felt rolling of the Hyuga heiress and shifted a bit uncomfortably. If she suddenly decided to attack the ramen waitress then, he was going to make sure that he was well out of her way.

"Naruto-kun, where have you been for the past week? I was worried that something might have happened to you." Ayame asked as she released him.

"Sorry about that, nee-chan. After I passed my genin exams I decided to use the week off to get in some extra training before team assignments. I went to my private training ground and didn't usually come home until late." Naruto replied.

"Well since you're here how what can I get for you and your friends?" Ayame asked as she made her way back into the stand.

"I'll have five beef ramen, five miso ramen, and two teriyaki ramen." Naruto replied.

"I'll have one bowl of miso ramen." Shino replied.

"Ano, I-I'll have a b-bowl of chicken ramen, please." Hinata added.

Teuchi nodded as he began preparing their orders. Ayame leaned over the counter as she gaze at the three before and gave a smirk when she noticed the blushing Hinata throwing glances at her surrogate little brother.

"So, are you going to introduce me to your friends, Naruto-kun?" Ayame inquired.

"These are my new teammates, Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuga and these are two of my precious people, Ayame nee-chan and jiji Teuchi." Naruto replied as the four greeted each other.

"I'm glad that you finally managed to graduate, Naruto-kun. If I had known I would've gotten together with tousan and gotten you a graduation gift. When you didn't show up all last week I thought something had happened and you were never home when I checked by your apartment." Ayame said.

"I'm sorry to have worried you but I really needed the training since it seemed that I somehow managed to gain a bloodline ability. When I talked to Sarutobi-jiji he suggested that I take some time to train with a sensei he had set up for me." Naruto lied.

"So, this new Kekkai Genkai is the reason for your increase in height as well as your increased chakra levels?" Shino inquired.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I've had it for a while but never had anyone that I could train with so that I could learn what it didn't but it basically deals with the body but I'm not sure if that's all. I've noticed that my stamina has increased as well and I was already a stamina freak to begin with."

'_Sugoii, Naruto-kun is even more amazing than ever. Now that he has his own kekkai genkai he will be even stronger than before. I just hope that I don't become a burden on him or Shino in the future. I would hate for Naruto-kun to treat me the same way he treated Sakura-san.'_ Hinata thought.

"N-Naruto-kun, I-I've noticed that y-you are acting differently t-th-than before. Is that because of your k-kekkai genkai as well?" Hinata asked, struggling to control her stuttering habit.

"No, that's not the reason why I'm acting this way. The way that I used to act during the academy was merely a mask that I created. For a long time I was treated rather badly and I don't know why. I wondered if it was because I was an orphan from the Kyuubi attack or it was because of my parents. I learned that if I acted like an idiot then, people tended to ignore me so that was why I acted the way I did all of the time. When I became a genin I had a talk with Sarutobi-jiji and he told me to drop my mask since if I was going to have teammates then they should get to know the real me." Naruto replied.

Ayame and Teuchi didn't say anything since this was the first time they had heard this story but they knew why Naruto chose to act this way. It wasn't his fault that the Yondaime chose Naruto to seal the Kyuubi into him but instead of treating him like the hero that he was they treated him like the worst criminal. Luckily, they were able to see that Naruto was just a lonely boy that yearned for some form of attention. That was why they treated Naruto the way that he should be treated and did whatever they could to make his suffering more tolerable. Hinata was aware of the way that the civilians and many of the shinobi treated Naruto from the many times she had followed to watch her crush train. She didn't see why they would treat someone as nice and caring as Naruto to with hateful glare and spiteful words. Shino was also aware of the way the civilians and some shinobi treated Naruto because his entire clan treated with prejudice because they shared their bodies with their kikai bugs. However, the looks that Naruto received were far worse than any that had ever been directed at him or his clansmen. Both made the decision that they would discover why Naruto to was treated the way he was and would remain by his side as his friends for as long as he would allow them.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that everything is alright with you. I don't know what I would do if I suddenly lost my number one customer. I would probably be out of business if you don't show up every so often." Teuchi said as he placed their orders before them.

The three thanked them and began to dig into their meals. Hinata and Shino could only gape in awe at how rapidly Naruto dug into his food while Ayame could only giggle while Teuchi laughed at their expressions. As Naruto sat their surrounded by the four he realized that his life was no longer as miserable as it once was. Ever since the night he gained Hyôrinmaru and Senbonzakura it was as if a path was set before that would lead him to happiness. He now had two more that he hoped that he could count as his precious people and he would do everything in his power to protect them all. As the three left the ramen stand he once again realized that it was a good thing that he had let down his mask. Maybe when he got to meet his new Jounin-sensei's his future in Konoha would continue to look all the more brighter. He could only hope that they didn't share the same views as the rest of the villagers but if they did he would have Hinata and Shino to support him and that was all he needed at the moment.

* * *

A/N: Well, that takes care of chapter 2 of Konoha's Shinigami. This chapter was only mean to give an introduction of some of the key characters as well as a development of bonds. I received a review from We Are Legion about the form that I gave Senbonzakura and I'm aware of his true form but I decided to do it differently. If some of you don't like this I apologize but I'm sticking by my decision. Also, the reason why I chose Hyôrinmaru and Senbonzakura as his zanpaktou was because I feel they emphasis Naruto's desire to protect his friends. As to the members of the harem, if you were to check my profile you would see who I had planned. However, they may change at any time if I feel the need.

The next chapter will focus on more bonding between Naruto and the rest of team 8 as well as a test. I will also focus on other others aspects that I won't specify before I start picking up the pace by laying down some groundwork so that my readers gain a better feel for my story. I didn't really do any character bashing but there will be some in the next chapter mainly the members of team 7. I'm not sure if I'm going to really bash Sakura since I may have an idea of redeeming her character bit from the one portrayed in canon. Please read and review and will try to post the next chapter as soon as possible and I thank those that have supported me so far.


	3. A Budding Team, a Show of Skill

Naruto: Konoha's Shinigami

Chapter 3: A Budding Team, a Show of Skill.

By: Terror of the Azure Flame

Disclaimer:

I don't own Naruto because Kishimoto does. If I did then Naruto wouldn't have to deal with the king of 'emo' and he would be a god among men.

Summary:

During Naruto's fight against Mizuki he dies but Kyuubi saves him by unlocking a power not seen since the Yondaime Hokage. What is the secret behind the two blades Naruto now possesses and what other secrets lay behind his new power and abilities? This will be a Naruto/Bleach crossover and a Narutoxharem with character bashing.

"Talking" normal talk

_'Thinking' _normal people thinking/spirit talking

"**Blah!" **Bijuu/summon talk or yelling (or Gai and Lee)

_**'Blah!' **_Bijuu/summon thinking

* * *

The three genin hopefuls entered the classroom to notice that many of the other students had returned. Naruto noted that Sakura was amongst them and she was glaring in his direction while releasing a pathetic excuse for killer intent. He repressed the urge to leak out some of his own killer intent towards the girl to remind her of his earlier threat. He was grateful that the Sandaime hadn't put him on the same team as her. He knew he would have to listen to her day after day harping about how he was trying to upstage the king of brooding when he began to show his true skills.

'_I guess my little display earlier didn't really affect her that much. As long as she doesn't try anything anymore I won't worry about her.' _Naruto thought.

He followed Hinata and Shino while noting that many of the members of Sasuke's fanclub was looking at him while blushing and felt a shiver run up his spine. Kami help him if they started chasing him the way that chased Sasuke but he was disappointed with how shallow some of these so-called kunoichi were. He wondered when they would realize that with how unstable Sasuke was maybe they would focus more on their own shinobi skills.

'_Naruto-kun, you make it sound as if it is such a terrible thing that they have begun to find you desirable. If they had taken interest in you earlier you could've motivated them to improve by saying that you required a strong companion. That way they would've trained in order to show you they were strong in order to gain your attention much like your teammate Hinata does.'_ Senbonzakura said with a giggle.

'_That may be true but I don't think I could handle being chased around the village on a daily basis. Plus, a lot of parents would've been angry with me and claimed that the 'demon child' had enchanted their daughters.' _Was Naruto's mental reply.

'_That is true but Hinata would be perfect for you if she were to overcome her shy nature. I can tell from your memories that she seeks your approval but I also know why you don't pursue her is also a factor.' _Senbonzakura said.

'_I need to be patient until the time that I can show the village that I am not the demon that they make me out to be. If I can ever gain there acceptance then my life will be a lot easier. I don't want anything like what happened to Kanae to ever happen again if I can do anything to prevent it.'_ Naruto replied.

Senbonzakura chose to remain silent as she was aware how much of a painful subject Kanae was for Naruto. However, Kyuubi decided at that moment to enter into the conversation after being silent for so long.

"**I don't understand why you chose to grieve over the fate of the female kit so much since you were so powerless at the time. You should just exact your rightful revenge on these pathetic ningen and the civilians that were responsible. With the power you have at your disposal it would be such an easy task." Kyuubi said.**

'_I chose not to since it would not be what Kanae would want me to do. I would prefer not to pull an Itachi and wipe out the entire village. I want to show them that I am more than you in a human form. Besides, I have others that are precious to me and as long as I have them then, I won't do anything to this village. Besides, how can I reach my dream to become Hokage and surpass Yondaime if I start attacking villagers like that? I want to gain some form of acceptance even if it is just a little bit.' _Naruto replied.

"**I still believe that you are wasting your time trying to prove yourself to these pathetic fleshbags. Soon you won't even be one of them and do you think that they will accept you once you ascend to a kitsune hanyou. They will scorn you even more and will truly come to see you as my reincarnation. That is why Bijuu like myself and the others have such little respect for humans. To your small minds you believe that you are the ultimate existence of kami and that anything else is demonic in nature. Many don't even realize that creatures such as your summons are demons known as dire beasts yet they are praised with reverence even though they are demons of lower level that we Bijuu." **Kyuubi said in irritation.

'_I was told once before that a person can understand things to a great level of enlightenment when told something but people are ignorant of the truth that is right before him. Many may scorn demons but I am sure that are some that praise your very existence whether it is for good or evil. I'm not entirely sure that you aren't entirely evil since I don't know the reason why you attacked the village. I don't know if all that you have done to help me is perhaps some sort of way to manipulate me to help you later to finish what you started. According to legends, kitsune are known to be tricksters and I have other manipulate me before when I was younger. That is why I'm not so easily trusting of people.'_ Naruto retorted.

"**You are wise not to be so trusting of me since you don't know my true reasons for helping you. However, if I were to try to manipulate you then your zanpaktou spirits would do everything in their power to stop me. However, if your will is weak then, they would have very little power. Until you prove to me that I won't be disgraced by having you as my vessel then, it wouldn't be wise to fully trust me. I will only tell you my reasons once you prove yourself worthy and you have a long way to go, kit."** Kyuubi said with a smirk.

'_I don't know how I can really prove myself to you but I will continue to follow my own nindo and protect those that are precious to me. I have been hiding behind my mask for so long and I'm ready to show the world that Naruto Uzumaki isn't the loudmouth idiot that always claimed he would become Hokage. I'm going to become the strongest and prove to everyone that I'm a serious shinobi of Konoha. I owe that much to Kanae and everyone else that is precious to me.'_ Naruto said.

'_Well said, my young friend. You possess the will to endure everything that has been thrown at you and retain your true self. You chose to remain in the light and become a protector and instead of allowing the darkness to swallow you and become the village's self-fulfilling prophecy. This is why myself and Senbonzakura are eternally grateful that we are your partners.'_ Hyôrinmaru spoke for the first time.

'_I agree with Hyôrinmaru when he expresses why we were chosen as your partners as we represent your desire to protect others. Our power will always be at your disposal as long as you stay to the path that you have chosen. You are a protector and that desire will make you as powerful as you strive to become. A person can truly become stronger than their perceived limits when they have those precious that they wish to protect.'_ Senbonzakura added.

"**Enough of this sentimentality from the three of you. I'd rather be roaming your memories than listening to this."** Kyuubi said with a growl.

'_Well, tough for you since I follow my own path and you're just going to have to enjoy the ride because this is who I am.' _Naruto said as he cut the mental link.

He was unaware of the satisfied chuckles of Hyôrinmaru and Senbonzakura and the aggravated roar of feminine fury from Kyuubi. He began to idly strum his fingers on his desk as he waited for the lunch break to end before they could meet their Jounin sensei. He was suddenly aware of two chakra signatures on the edge of his awareness but they both felt suppressed. He began to look around the classroom in search of the signatures and noticed a shimmering in the far corner at the back of the classroom. He realized that it was a genjutsu and even though he wasn't proficient at it because of his huge chakra reserves he was still able to detect and dispel them. However, he didn't dispel this one since he wondered who would go through the trouble of using a genjutsu to hide themselves and observe the classroom for whatever the reason.

'_Maybe it's one of those that hate me and was hoping for the opportunity to catch me off guard but why in a place like this? Perhaps they were thinking that if they attacked me in front of everyone that I wouldn't try to fight back and make me an easy kill. Do they really think that endangering the lives of the heirs of so many prominent clans just to get at me would be such a great idea? Such foolishness is why I wonder why I want to protect this village at times and become its leader. If I was really an evil demon then, I would kill them and everyone else in this room with little remorse.'_ Naruto thought.

Naruto was drawn from his thoughts by someone sitting next to him to him and turned his gaze to see Ino sitting next to him, smiling. Chouji and Shikamaru were sitting in the row below them and the pineapple haired genius was quick to note the frown that Hinata was now directing at the platinum blond. Naruto cocked his head to the side for a moment as he gazed at the girl; an act that many of the girls thought was kawaii.

"Can I help you with anything, Yamanaki-san?" Naruto asked. He still wasn't too sure what to make of one of Sasuke's biggest fangirls.

"Don't need to be so formal with me, Naruto-kun. I just wanted to have a talk with you since it's been such a long time since I've seen this side of you." Ino replied, still smiling.

"What do you mean by that?" Naruto asked with his head still tilted.

Ino leaned closer much to Hinata's growing displeasure. "You know exactly what I mean. This reminds me of the way that you used to act when we first became friends when we were younger. You used to be so cool back then, and I really liked that about you. I don't know why you started acting like a hyperactive, loudmouth baka in the first place but I didn't like that at all." Ino whispered with a slight frown.

Naruto cocked his head back straight as he stared into her eyes for a moment. He was surprised what he found in her pale blue orbs. There was concern and unless he was imagining it affection and it was all directed at him. He didn't know what to make of this since the only ones to ever look at him in such away were Hinata and Kanae.

"What are you trying to pull, Yamanaki-san? Is this some sort of plot by you and Sakura to get back at me for what I said earlier because if it is it won't work? I'm not as naïve as I made myself out to be all these years and I have my reasons for why I chose to act the way I have in the past." Naruto said.

Ino jerked her head back to glare at her fellow blond. "Why would I do something like that? Forehead girl deserved exactly what she got and I'm not trying to defend her or anything like that. I'm not as shallow as I seem and I thought you would've at least remembered that since we used to be friends."

"I also seem to recall that you ended our friendship after I started acting differently in order to chase after Sasuke. If you were truly my friend then, something like that wouldn't have affected our friendship in the first place." Naruto retorted as he turned his gaze away from her.

Shikamaru and the others were now being drawn into the conversation and wondered how Ino would respond. They were all aware of the past history between the two blondes since Ino had went from being one of Naruto's friends to another of the many that would tease him when he acted like an idiot.

"I know that I didn't really act like a friend in the past and I'm sorry about that. I was young so I was prone to make mistakes and my biggest mistake was ending our friendship just because I wanted Sasuke to notice me. I made the same mistake with Sakura and I'm still regretting that as well but I want to at least start making amends with you." Ino replied.

"Why would you suddenly have a change of heart after all of this time? Don't tell me that know that I look cool you want me to be the next object of your attention? I'm only interested in people that see me for who I truly am to consider my precious people. I'm tired of hiding behind the mask that I created six years ago to appease others." Naruto said with an edge to his monotone voice.

"What do you mean by that, Naruto?" Chouji asked.

Naruto shifted his gaze to the Akimichi. "I really don't want to talk about that right now, Chouji. It's something that I decided to do when I was younger to gain attention but at the same time it was a stupid idea."

"I don't understand why you would do something so troublesome? If you acted like what I've seen so far all the time then, you would've been getting a lot of attention just like Sasuke." Shikamaru said.

Naruto sighed. "It's not as simple as you make it seem, Shikamaru. There are things about me that many don't know and because of them I'm not seen in a positive light by others."

"What kinda things are you talking about, Naruto-kun?" Ino asked.

Naruto was still unaccustomed to the affectionate way she said his name. "I can't talk about things like that since it's a secret of mine and as a fellow shinobi you know we all have our own secrets."

"What kinda secret a dobe like you have? While you're at it tell me about those swords that you have?" Sasuke's arrogant voice sounded.

Everyone turned their gaze to the Uchiha heir as he stood at the end of the row looking at Naruto with an aloof gaze. The guys and Hinata were constantly sickened by how he seemed to look down on everyone else as if he was superior to everyone. Even Ino began to wonder why she even tried to go after him in the first place. Naruto returned his gaze with a bored one of his own as he tilted his head to the left.

"Why would you want to know anything about me or my swords, Uchiha? You have constantly made it known that I am unworthy of your attention so why the sudden interest." Naruto's eyes widened, slightly. "Don't tell me that you're interested in that way, Sas-gay? If so that would explain why you always turn down all the beautiful girls in the village. I'm going to let you know right now that I don't swing that way so go find someone else." Naruto said still in a monotone.

Sasuke sputtered for a moment as he glared at Naruto. Many snickers were heard from the guys and a few girls gave Sasuke questionable glances while others glared at Naruto for insinuating their precious Sasuke-kun was gay.

"I AM NOT GAY! I was talking about those two swords on your back and waist!" Sasuke snapped.

"I'm merely calling things as I see them. I know for a fact that any other guy would love to have so many girls chasing after them wanting to be their girlfriends. You even have a lot of the older kunoichi chasing after you and you always turn them down saying you're not interested. What else would you expect me to say after seeing you do that?" Naruto replied.

Sasuke glared for a moment longer before a smirk crossed his face. "You're just saying that since none of them would even bother to look at you. You think that just because you changed your look that they will start liking you all of a sudden. Forget it because no one would ever want a dobe like you. Why would any girl in their right mind want a no-talent clanless loser like you? I don't know how you managed to sweet talk the Hokage into passing you but I'm glad you're not on my team since you would be nothing but dead weight."

'_I wouldn't mind being Naruto's girlfriend.'_ Was the collective thought of Hinata, Ino and many other girls but Naruto was unaware of this.

Naruto returned his smirk with a deadpan look. "You have no idea how glad I'm not on your team. I don't think I would be able to concentrate on anything else since I'll always have to keep looking over my shoulder to make sure you're not trying anything. I would never be able to live with the shame if you actually managed to succeed and I would be scared for life."

Sasuke glared at Naruto with such intensity that he would've exploded from spontaneous combustion if the Uchiha was capable of it. The class had erupted into laughter at hearing this and realized that this new Naruto was a lot better than the one they had known. Sakura had grown tired of listening to her puppy talk about her Sasuke-kun in such a way and was going to remind him of his place compared to the Uchiha. Sadly, she seemed to suffer from a case of short-term amnesia since she seemed to forget how she had broken down in front of Naruto earlier. Stomping over to where the others stood, she placed her hands on her hips as she glared at Naruto.

"NARUTO-BAKA, TAKE BACK WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT SASUKE-KUN!" Sakura screeched.

Naruto seemed to wince as he shifted his gaze to her. "Will you tone it down, you pink-haired banshee? I don't think they heard you all the way in Iwa and if they did they're probably half deaf right about now."

"Stop trying to act all cool like Sasuke-kun. Nobody is going to like you anymore than before and I know no girl would want a loser like you. Plus, if you think I'm going to start liking you then, you can forget it because you will never be as great as Sasuke-kun so save yourself the embarrassment." Sakura snapped at a much more moderate level.

Naruto clasped his hands in a prayer as if thanking kami as he looked towards the roof. "You have no idea how happy you made me when you said that. I would probably be just as creeped out as if Sasuke was chasing me if I had a flat-chested pink-haired man trying to come on to me."

Sakura seethed with rage as laughter echoed around the classroom._ 'How dare Naruto-baka talk to me like that?'_

"**Chaaa! Put our puppy in his place for being a bad boy!" **Inner Sakura exclaimed.

Before Sakura could rain down righteous female fury on Naruto Sasuke decided to speak up again.

"Dobe, I do know where you got the new attitude but if know what's best for you then, you'll knock it off. I wouldn't mind reminding you why I'm the rookie of the year or have you forgotten how easily I used to wipe the floor with you in our spars?" Sasuke smirked with an air of arrogance.

Although Naruto had no intention of following up Sasuke on his challenge both girls beside him grabbed an arm to prevent him from moving. Ino grabbed his chin and pulled his gaze to her while Hinata was blushing crimson from touching Naruto while wishing she was bold enough to do what the blond was doing.

"Naruto-kun, don't fight with Sasuke, okay!" Ino pleaded.

Many were surprised with the change in honorifics on the names of the two boys while wondering about Ino's sudden change of interests in boys. Hinata quickly began to realize that Ino was indeed interested in her Naruto-kun and had to gather up her courage to show her interest in him as well.

"N-Na-Naruto-k-kun, y-you shouldn't fi-fight w-with Sasuke-kun s-sin-since it cou-ld end re-really bad for the two of you. I d-d-don't w-want you to get i-in-to any trouble so please don't." Hinata said while proud she managed to control her stuttering some.

"Sasuke, stop being so troublesome!" Shikamaru drawled. "Just because Naruto embarrassed you doesn't mean you have to fight him."

"Yeah, I agree with the lazy bum since you already proved you're his alpha but neither of you can hold a candle to a specimen like me. I would wipe the floor with both of you without even using Akamaru." Kiba boasted.

Sasuke quickly turned his glare to the Inuzuka and sneered at his teammate. "You're just as bad as the dobe even if you are from a clan but still just another loser. I don't even know why I'm bothering with any of you since none of you are even worth my time."

Sasuke cast a final glare at Naruto before turning away with Sakura following while glaring at Naruto as well before trying to gain Sasuke's attention. She was ignored as usual as Sasuke went into his normal brooding mode. Kiba was undecided on whether to join his teammates or not at first but a look at Naruto, who had removed Ino's hand from his face, told him he was better off with the emo king.

"Man, you really are troublesome, Naruto!" Shikamaru said while scratching his head.

"I have no clue what you are implying, Shikamaru. I wasn't the one that started it so how come I get to be the troublesome one." Naruto retorted.

Shikamaru sighed. "You're such a troublesome blonde!"_ 'I still wonder where he got those swords from but I'll ask him later.'_

Naruto smirked at the boy before turning his attention to the two girls. "I wasn't about to do anything to him but I do appreciate the effort. However, I don't think the two of you need to try and hold me down anymore. It's not like I planning on going after Sas-gay or anything since it wouldn't be good for my sanity if you know what I mean."

Both girls blushed as they realized they both still had a grip on Naruto's arms. Ino only blushed a light pink while averting her gaze but Hinata was blushing a whole new shade of crimson and looked ready to faint once again.

"Don't go fainting on me again, hime. I don't mind carrying you around but it would look rather awkward and give people ideas." Naruto said.

It was a bad move as Hinata promptly fainted as she remembered the feel of Naruto's arms when he carried her earlier. Luckily, Shino was behind her and caught the girl before she hit the floor and placed her in her seat to allow her to recuperate. Naruto had to resist the urge to sigh and decided to make it his personal mission to help the girl overcome her shy nature. Ino found herself feeling jealous of the Hyuga girl when she heard Naruto call her hime and admitted that he had carried her earlier after a fainting spell. She wasn't completely sure where her feelings for her fellow blond stood but she had a feeling that she couldn't approach him while acting like a shallow fangirl. She knew that with Naruto you had to be serious in order to get his attention if her memory of his younger self was to go by. If this was still the same Naruto she had a crush on before then, she wasn't about to let him go to Hinata without a fight. She had a lot to make up for and she could only hope that he would give her a chance.

Anything further to be said was put on hold as Iruka stepped into the classroom followed by several figures. Naruto was also aware that two of them possessed the same chakra signatures that he felt before and wondered how they had left the room without him noticing. He realized the argument with Sasuke had taken his attention away from them as he focused on the two female Jounin. One had long wavy, black hair that was about shoulder length and exotic crimson orbs that reminded him of Kyuubi's. She was dressed in a battle dress that seemed to be made of large bandage wrappings with stripes of black running along the center of each band. Fishnet armor covered her exposed cleavage area while a red sleeve was on her right arm while her other was missing. Bandage wrappings covered her forearms and much of her hands while he could also see some beneath her battle dress as well. Lastly, she wore black shinobi sandals while her hitai-ate was on her forehead but Naruto could see no visible weapons so he assumed they were hidden on her person. The other had purple hair that was tied in back to resemble a pineapple much like Shikamaru's with hazel colored eyes. She wore a full body fishnet suit that stopped about mid-thigh covered by a dark tan mini-skirt and a tan trenchcoat. She also had a pendant of a fang that hung between her ample breasts with black shinobi sandals which were covered by metal shin guards and her hitai-ate was worn of her forehead as well. He also noticed that she had a predatory smirk on her face as she gazed in his direction which caused an involuntary shudder up his spine. He also took note of one of the male Jounin that he recognized as the Sandaime's son, Asuma Sarutobi. Asuma had short; slightly spiked hair with a neatly trimmed beard with dark brown eyes. He was dressed as a typical Jounin with a green flak jacket over a blue shirt with sleeves rolled up to about mid-forearm with two black metal bands on his wrists. He wore blue shinobi pants with a sash that identified him as one of the guardians of fire with bandages wrapped around his shins and elbows with black shinobi sandals and wore his hitai-ate around his forehead.

'_I'm surprised Asuma-san is motivated enough to take on a genin team since I always assumed he was a laid back person.' _Naruto thought.

As the other Jounin called out to their new teams he was surprised by the words that escaped the red-eyed beauty.

"Team 8, come with us." The woman said.

Naruto glanced at Shino who nodded to him as he moved to pick up Hinata since she had yet to awaken. He didn't notice the dark-haired beauty narrowing her eyes at him as he lifted the Hyuga heiress into a bridal carry before descending the steps. He also didn't notice the jealous look Ino was directing at the unconscious girl. Chouji and Shikamaru noticed while knowing the blond now had another rivalry with another girl for a boy she was interested in. Two women looked over their three new charges for the purple-haired beauty spoke for the first time.

"Alright, meet us at training ground eight in twenty minutes, gaki's." The woman said before both vanished in a shushin.

"Oh, man! Training ground eight is all the way on the other side of the village. It will take us about twenty-five minutes to get there since I have to carry Hinata." Naruto said.

"We had best hurry since I believe this is probably some sort of test. We must make a good impression if we want to be taken seriously." Shino said.

"Let's take the window then." Naruto said as he made a dash to the open window.

He bounded out the window and began to roof-hop towards their destination with Shino close on his heels. The blond knew that he could make it in less than twenty minutes if he really wanted to but that meant he would leave Shino behind and he wasn't going to do so. It was better that he matched the stoic Aburame's pace so that they arrived as a team even if they end up being late. It came as a surprise to him when the Aburame suddenly passed him and couldn't hide the smirk that came to his face. Maybe he wasn't the only one that hid a lot of his potential in school since he had a feeling that some of his classmates had held back in the academy. Picking up his pace to match Shino's the trio was bounding across the rooftops of Konoha at low chuunin speeds.

A few minutes later, both shinobi landed in the clearing that represented training ground eight to find both women standing their waiting for them. The training ground was mainly a clearing surrounded by forest with a lake set near the far eastern edge that was fed by a waterfall. The two women took note of the appearance of their two males students and noted that Naruto appeared to be perfectly fine while Shino was slightly out of breath. They were not surprised by Naruto since any shinobi of the leaf chuunin and above was aware of the blonde's unnatural stamina. As the two women continued to stare at them Naruto decided it was time to rouse Hinata from her fainting spell.

"Hime, it's time for you to wake up." Naruto said in a gentle tone as he lightly shook the girl in his arms.

Hinata gave a soft groan as she slowly opened her eyes only to blink a few times as she got accustomed with the sudden sunlight. It took a few moments to clear her vision and she blushed when she realized her predicament of once again having Naruto carry her after another one of her fainting spells. She probably would've fainted again if it was not for the red-eyed beauty clearing her throat to draw attention to her.

"Since Hinata-chan is awake how about we get everything started, shall we? First, let's have some introductions so that we can learn a little about each other. I will go first to give you the idea of what I'm expecting to hear. My name is Kurenai Yuhi and I'm a recently promoted Jounin. My likes are tea ceremonies, gardening and teriyaki fish. My dislikes are perverts and those that think kunoichi aren't as capable as males because of our more slender builds. My dream is to make sure that the three of you advance in your shinobi careers and my specialty is genjutsu." Kurenai said.

"My name is Anko Mitarashi and I'm a Jounin specializing in torture and interrogation. My likes are dango, red bean soup, and poisons while I have a strong dislike for a certain hebi pedophile traitor and those that misjudge others for the crimes of others. My dreams are a little mature for you three gaki's and my specialty his assassination and stealth." Anko said. "Okay, you first pale eyes."

Hinata blushed and took a deep breath. "My name is Hinata Hyuga. My likes are my sister, cinnamon buns, and flower pressing. My l-li-likes a-a-re a ce-cert-ain b-boy and my f-family." She paused to take another breath. "I dislike people that are cruel or mean to others and my dream is to one day unite the Hyuga main and branch families when I become clan head. My specialty is Hyuga taijutsu." _'I almost managed to completely control my stuttering. Maybe if I spend more time with Naruto-kun I can gain more confidence to be around him.'_

"Sunglasses, you're up next." Anko said.

If Shino was offended by the comment he didn't show it. "My name is Shino Aburame. My likes are our family kikai insects, collecting insects, and breeding new species to integrate new species into our family hive. My dislikes are pesticides, those that harm insects, and people that prejudice of others for reasons beyond their control. My dream is to surpass my father in the amount of hives I can sustain in my body and to become a strong clan head one day. My specialty is my family jutsus." Shino said while pushing up his glasses.

"Blondie, you're last so make it good." Anko said with a smirk.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. My likes are training, learning new jutsus, and my precious people. My dislikes are those that judge people for a burden that they had no choice in instead of getting to know them. My dream is to become the strongest that I can possibly become so I can be Hokage and show everyone who I really am. My specialties lie in my use of kenjutsu, ninjutsu, and taijutsu." Naruto replied in his normal monotone.

"I've been wondering since I first saw those swords and I would like to know who gave them to you and who trained you, Naruto-kun?" Kurenai asked.

"I was given these swords by two very special friends and they are an extension of my soul as I use them. I was trained by a few of the Anbu that used to watch over me when I was younger." Naruto replied. "I was also wondering why the two of you were hiding with a genjutsu during class earlier. I now have a pretty good guess but I want to be sure I'm close."

"Oh, I'm surprised you noticed us since Kurenai-chan is considered the best genjutsu user in all of Hi no Kuni. As to why we were there it was because we want to get first look at our future genin." Anko replied.

"Because of my unique situation I had to be extra aware of my surroundings at all times. I may not be good at using genjutsu but I'm pretty good at detecting and dispelling them. Plus, I kinda figured that was why the two of you were there but I'm also wondering why we were given two senseis instead of the usual one?" Naruto said.

"I guess I can answer you on that one but I want to know if you want Hinata and Shino to know as well." Kurenai replied.

Naruto was confused by what she meant. _'Does she intend to tell them about me being the jinchuuriki for Kyuubi or about my mask that I used to wear?'_

Kurenai noticed his confusion. "I'm talking about you hiding you true shinobi skills for so many years."

"I wasn't aware that you knew of my true skill level." Naruto said.

"I used to be a part of your security detail so I used to train you from time to time but you would remember me as the hebi Anbu. I let Kurenai know since she came across your training ground one day and told me about what she saw so I told her everything that I knew about you. Actually, you would be quite surprised by how many Jounin really wanted to be your sensei over all the other genin hopefuls." Anko said.

"Kurenai-sensei, what do you mean by Naruto-san's true skill? He is a genin like Hinata and myself so he shouldn't be that skilled since I saw that much of his academy instruction was sabotaged by the staff." Shino inquired.

"What I mean to say that since Naruto was five years old he has been trained by members of Anbu because of his special situation hear in the village. It was also because of this situation that he chose to hide his skill while he was attending academy for the past six years. I wouldn't say that Naruto is as strong as a Jounin but he is a lot stronger than most genin and I would put him around mid-chuunin level in skills after witnessing his training from time to time." Kurenai replied with a small smile.

"A-no, w-w-what kind of s-sp-special situation was N-N-Naru-to-kun in?" Hinata asked, shyly while glancing at her crush.

"I'm afraid I can't tell the two of you about that just yet, hime. I would like to say I could trust you with my secret but I have to be real careful when I tell people that don't already know about it. Hopefully, I will be able to tell the both of you but I have to be sure that I can completely trust you since this secret could easily change your opinion of me." Naruto replied.

Hinata and Shino nodded since Naruto had already told them the same thing earlier and hadn't change their goal to one day learn his big secret. Anko and Kurenai shared a brief glance with each other before deciding to tell their potential students why they were here in the first place.

"Okay, we'll talk about that more later but for now we have a genin exam to the three of you to prove if you have what it takes to be true genin." Anko said.

"What do you mean, Anko-sensei?" Naruto asked.

"What I mean that out of the total twenty-seven genin that graduated from the academy that only nine can be selected to become official Konoha genin. The academy exam was only a preliminary test to weed out those that lack the abilities to become genin. It is up to the Jounin instructors to administer the final test of their own choice. This test has a 66.6% chance of failure so you'd best bring your best if you want to prove to us that you can make it in the real world." Anko said then, smirked. "At first, we were going to just merely assess your skills with a little survival exam. However, a certain Cyclops was bragging earlier that his team is a lot better than this one because he had the Uchiha on his team and was sure we would fail you three."

Naruto narrowed his eyes since he remembered that the Jounin for team 7 was Kakashi Hatake and was aware that the former Anbu captain saw him just like the rest of the ignorant shinobi and villagers. He had been part of his security detail when he was younger and it was during those times that mobs always managed to get past the Anbu assigned to protect him and attack him. His slowly rising fury was felt by both Hyôrinmaru and Senbonzakura as the two swords began to vibrate in their sheaths as a sign of their anger towards the man that would cause harm to their partner.

Both women saw the look in his eyes as well as the frowns on the faces of both the Aburame heir and the normally timid Hyuga heiress. They had the perfect plan to go after Kakashi since his being a major pervert with his constant reading of Icha Icha paradise was a major peeve for the two since they both hated perverts. They were planning to have their team gain a little bit of revenge on Kakashi for his blatant hatred of Naruto and his disrespecting of their skills as kunoichi.

"Okay, I'm going to give you the mock mission that we thought up before you are given the option to accept it or not. If you choose not to then, we will go with our original plan but if you accept it you three will be judged by your performance." Kurenai said.

"Give me the mission, Kurenai-sensei! I've had an issue with Hatake for quite some time and I want to take out a little of my frustration on him if you know what I mean. If I know Anko-sensei the way that I think I do then, this is going to be fun for me." Naruto said which made Anko grin at his enthusiasm.

Kurenai smiled. "I already knew you would agree and we made this mission with you in mind but I want to let Hinata and Shino know before they make a decision. As you know Kakashi is supposed to be given team 7 his own exam to see if they pass. However, Kakashi has a habit of being at least three hours late for just about everything so he won't be giving his test for about another hour and a half which would make it about eleven before he begins. The mission that we have for you is Kakashi has a certain little orange book in his possession that he highly values. The mission is for the three of you to wait until he begins his test to attack him and retrieve the book from him which his normally kept in his rear pouch and return it to us. However, since he will also be testing team 7 you are to attack while at the same time not interfere with their own attacks on him."

"Now, do you three gaki's think you can handle this mission?" Anko asked with a sadistic grin. "If you don't accept this then, I will just take my time testing you in my own special way."

"I think I speak for both Hinata and myself when we agree with Naruto-san in taking the mission." Shino replied while Hinata nodded not trusting herself to speak.

Anko rubbed her hands in glee. "I just I was going to love the three of you. Now the three of you get together and plan on how you're going to take Kakashi's book. Don't forget that he isn't a Jounin for nothing so plan carefully and we wish you luck."

The three genin hopefuls nodded to their sensei's before gathering to make out plans on how to deal with Kakashi. Anko and Kurenai overheard a few of their plans and had to admit that some had the potential to bring Kakashi or any other Jounin down and were proud of the three. If they actually managed to accomplish their mission then, they would be more than qualified to become genin. Plus, it would be a bonus to see the great Kakashi Hatake taken down by three genin fresh out of the academy. It was awhile longer before the three decided on an initial plan as well as several backups. Surprisingly, it was Hinata that suggested their most effective plans and the praise she received from Naruto had the girl blushing as she swelled with pride at impressing her crush. With their mission and plans ready to be set in motion the three made their way over to training ground 7 seven where team 7 was to be waiting for Kakashi to show. Anko and Kurenai maintained a reasonable distance to watch the proceeding and see how well the three could work together.

* * *

_One hour later…_

Hinata, Naruto, and Shino were all in position as they waited for Kakashi to make his appearance. Since he was a Jounin they made sure to suppress their chakra as far as possible in order mask their presence. Hopefully, Kakashi wouldn't be alert enough to pay them any notice since he would most likely just be expecting Kiba, Sakura, and Sasuke to be waiting for him. They had set up several traps to aid them while positioning themselves in a triangular formation around the training ground. Shino had released his kikai insects in order to scout the area to give him a better overview of all the angles to attack from while Hinata used her Byakugan to look over the entire area. Naruto used his Kage Bunshins to henge into various wildlife as well as rocks so he could prepare a better ambush against Kakashi if he had to. It was only a moment later when Kakashi appeared in the clearing via a leaf shushin and both Kiba and Naruto had to covered their ears when Sakura berated Kakashi about being late. They listened as he explained to the three about their objective of their test which was to acquire a bell from him. However, the catch was that he only possessed two bells and whoever didn't gain a bell when the alarm sounded at noon would be sent back to the academy.

'_I don't understand why he would give them a test like this. I was taught that a genin teams is always a Jounin sensei and three genin under their command unless he said it to cause dissention among them so they wouldn't work together. I have to admit that is one way to strike at their egos Kiba and Sasuke will refuse to work together while Sakura will only try to assist Sasuke to get a bell. Sasuke most likely believes that his teammates will only slow him down and Kiba prefers to charge in recklessly while Sakura's pathetic skills won't even get her close to gaining a bell.' _Naruto thought.

As he saw the members of team 7 go into hiding it was time for his team to put their plan into motion. Keeping his chakra suppressed he made his way to the edge of the clearing closest to Kakashi before charging at the unsuspecting Jounin. Kakashi had pulled out his copy of Icha Icha and was enjoying his time spent when he suddenly detected a presence very close to him. It was not the chakra signature of one of his genin but at the same time it seemed familiar and yet so different at the same time. With the presence coming from his rear he spun around face his attacker and his eyes widened when he saw the blade of a sword coming horizontally at his head. Reacting on trained instincts, he leaned his head back so that the blade past harmlessly mere inches above his head but had to quickly block a kick that had been added at the end of his attacker's spin. In his off-balance state, the blow caused him to stumble back several steps before he could regain his balance. With a bit of distance between the two he was now able to see his attacker and his eyes narrowed in anger upon seeing Naruto. Naruto returned the gesture as he held Hyôrinmaru in right hand at a forty-five degree angle with his left leg back slightly with both legs bent slightly to allow him a quick spring for acceleration. His left hand was bent across his stomach in case he need to use Senbonzakura since he now wore her on his right side as well.

"I don't know why you chose to attack me like this but I will take great pleasure in humiliating you for all my pain you caused." Kakashi snarled.

Naruto tilted his head to the right. "I can't be accounted for your foolishness that you can't tell the difference between the two of us especially since she's a girl and I'm a guy but you probably don't know that since I only just found out myself thanks to Mizuki-teme. I'm just burdened with a fate that I didn't choose but I will continue on the path that I have chosen for myself to follow. That doesn't matter right now since I've been wanting to test myself against a strong opponent for quite some time and this also gives me a chance to test out Hyôrinmaru against someone other than my kage bunshins."

Kakashi was confused by Naruto's behavior since he could clearly remember that the blond was basically a hyperactive, loudmouth idiot. The Naruto Uzumaki that stood before him seemed calm with a bit of an attitude and his monotone way of speaking was kinda creeping him out. Plus, he wondered who or what was this 'Hyôrinmaru' that he was referring to. He was about to question the blond when he felt a slight sensation of fatigue and brought his hand up to forehead. He was shocked to see kikai insects crawling onto him and was sudden aware of another presence not too far away from him. He quickly began to brush them off before focusing back on Naruto.

"If you're wondering how the kikai got on you then, it was when you blocked my kick. Shino had instructed a few to remain on me along my leg and in the brief moment I kicked you they had swarmed my foot and were placed on you upon contact. I hope I didn't harm any of them since the kick had more power than I had intended but they seem to be enough to do the job." Naruto replied to Kakashi's unasked question.

"What is going on here?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto didn't reply as he suddenly charged the silver-haired Jounin and thrust forward with Hyôrinmaru in an attempt to stab him in the shoulder. Kakashi easily avoided the blow and moved into Naruto's guard to land a blow to his opposite shoulder. Naruto was prepared as he absorbed the momentum of the blow and slid into as he extended his left leg into a sweep that Kakashi easily jumped over while rising with an another attempt to stab him as he completed his spin. Kakashi was ready this time as he drew two kunai to brush the sword strike to the side and had to jump back to avoid a punch as Naruto once again flowed with the momentum of Kakashi's counter. Deciding that he would need to take the blond a bit more seriously as picked up the pace and stop playing with the Kyuubi container. Flipping both kunai into a reverse grip, he charged the blond and began to slash at him but was surprise Naruto was able to keep up and block him although he could see that he was struggling. Kakashi once again slipped into Naruto's guard after having to block a quick high low slash combo and he capitalized on the opening with a roundhouse kick to the side of Naruto's head. However, he was surprise when Naruto burst into smoke and was even more surprised that he had been fighting against a Kage Bushing in the last few minutes. Although, he was barely putting forth an effort in the fight so far to believe a mere Kage Bushing could've taken his earlier blows without dispelling.

'_I knew it was a bad idea for the Sandaime to let the Kyuubi be trained as a shinobi. With how strong he was before he was sealed by Minato-sensei he's only going to get stronger if the seal on his power breaks. I can't take him out now since I have the other genin looking and would look bad if I went all out on a genin since the Sandaime would know I attacked with the intent to kill. I'll just have to bide my time until I can get the opportunity to finish what sensei started but for now I'm just going to humiliate him.' _Kakashi thought with a grin beneath his mask.

He searched the area for his blond opponent but was surprised he couldn't sense neither him or his Aburame partner. The sound of sudden footsteps drew his attention to his left to find Hinata charging him with her Byakugan blazing and her left arm drawn back in preparation for a Jyuuken strike. Kakashi dodged the barrage of strikes that the Hyuga heiress was launching at him as he realized that the entire team 8 genin cell was attacking him but he wanted to know why. He was also wondering why his own genin were only watching as he was attacked and didn't bother to help but realized they may have just been waiting for team 8 to wear him down before they attacked. Unfortunately, he wasn't going to make it that easy as he prepared to counter Hinata after dodging another series of Jyuuken strikes. His planned counter was stopped as Naruto suddenly appeared at Hinata's side and the two began to work in tandem as they struck at the silver-haired Jounin. Kakashi had to admit that he was impressed by the teamwork of the two as they seemed to cover any openings that the other left so he couldn't capitalize on them. If not for his blind hatred of Naruto he realized the blond had more skill than he gave him credit for but also thought if the dead-last was this good then, Sasuke was several levels higher in skill compared to Naruto. If only he knew how much of an overestimate of Sasuke's skill in comparison to Naruto.

From their hiding places, the three genin of team 7 could only gape in amazement at the skill on display by both Hinata and Naruto as they took on their sensei. Sasuke was glaring at Naruto as he saw that there was a lot more to the dobe than even he had realized and the blond would actually make a decent rival if this was even a fraction of his skill. He had to admit that while he knew was skilled in taijutsu Naruto's style seemed to flow as he absorbed the power behind his opponent's strike and turned them into spinning counters from their momentum and always seemed to attack in an unexpected manner. He also realized that the blond also seemed to be able to handle the sword even though he had only used for a few moments in his initial rush but he seemed to handle like some of the kenjutsu users he had seen in the past. If only he had already awakened his Sharingan he would copy Naruto's styles and added them to his repertoire to make himself stronger. It didn't matter that he was a comrade since compared to an Uchiha elite like himself everyone else was inferior. Even the Hokage would be nothing to him once he gain the power of his Sharingan and any techniques would be his for the taking.

Kiba was also glaring at Naruto since he was so close to Hinata who the Inuzuka had long since claim as his future mate. He watched Naruto's show of skill but in his mind he was still an alpha and his skills were far greater than Naruto's. He rationalized that since Hinata was from the prestigious Hyuga clan she would never associate with a clanless dobe such as Naruto. He actually seemed to think that Hinata's fainting spells around the blond was her way of displaying her disgust for Naruto but as a blond he was too stupid to take the hint and leave his woman alone. Soon he would take the opportunity and show Naruto that he was not in his league and once he defeated the Uzumaki Hinata would be eternally grateful ridding her of his presence and shower him with her love.

Lastly, Sakura was also glaring at Naruto but hers was out of jealousy rather than awe of his skills which she reasoned were nothing compared to her Sasuke-kun. In her mind she was angry that with Naruto's change in appearance as his lack of interest of her was an unforgivable sin. It didn't help that her number one rival for Sasuke's affection now seemed to be interested in him along with Hinata who had always had a major crush on the blond for years. She hadn't really known Naruto back before he had adopted his idiot mask since her parents had always told her to stay away from him since he was dangerous and would hurt her. It was only when she had become friends with Ino that their friendship had lasted for only a month before her and Ino split when they began chasing Sasuke. She hadn't really realized that this was also around the same time that Naruto's personality took a complete one-eighty. She just couldn't see why so many girls would start taking a sudden interest in Naruto after his change but she knew that one way or another she was going to make Naruto fall for her again. She was going to remind him that his place was at her side making her feel good about herself and she wasn't going to let another girl take her puppy away.

Meanwhile, Shino had also joined in on the attack but he chose to keep a mid-range attack pattern since as an Aburame taijutsu wasn't his strong point. He was constantly sending his kikai in random intervals in order to catch Kakashi off guard and drain his chakra making it easier for Hinata and Naruto to get the book from Kakashi. Naruto had once again Hyôrinmaru and Kakashi learned a quick lesson that by drawing a stalemate against the sword caused his weapons to begin to freeze. He figured that Naruto was channeling chakra through the blade which seemed to combine Suiton and Fuuton elemental chakra in order to create a Hyoton affect. This once again made him wonder where Naruto got his swords and who created them for him or if this was merely a part of his abilities as Kyuubi that he had regained over the years. He knew that engaging them only in taijutsu was a waste since they seemed to have solid teamwork between the three so decided it was time for a little ninjutsu in order to even the odds. Parrying another Jyuuken strike from Hinata and leaping away to gain some distance before Naruto could lash out him with his sword. Flashing through a series of handseals before the three could attack him again he brought his thumb and pointer finger up to his masked lips.

"Katon: Gokakyouu no jutsu!" Kakashi exclaimed, as he released a huge fireball at Hinata and Naruto. (Fire release: Grand Fireball Technique!)

Naruto realized that because of the amount chakra in the attack the jutsu was rather large but he knew he could easily avoid it. However, he wasn't sure that Hinata would be able to avoid it and he wouldn't allow any harm to come to his hime. He received a mental nod from Hyôrinmaru as he prepared to unleash his second zanpaktou for the first time other than in training.

"Sôten ni zase, Hyôrinmaru!" Naruto intoned as he swung his sword forward as if to slash the jutsu despite the distance between the them. (Sit upon the Frozen Heavens, Ice Ring!)

Everyone that witnessed the move was shocked when a large icy blue dragon sprung forth from the tip of his sword with gleaming red eyes and a gaping maw. The dragon was actually larger than the fireball and completely engulfed the jutsu as it continued forward towards a still shocked Kakashi. The silver-haired Jounin got over his shock and rolled to the side but unfortunately his left leg was caught in the blast and was encased in a solid block of ice. The dragon continued past Kakashi and slammed into the ground creating a solid spike of ice as the attack ended. With his leg frozen, Kakashi once again turned his gaze to Naruto or more specifically the sword in his hand. He noticed that sword appeared the same with the exception of the icey vapor that surrounded the blade and the chain that connected to a small dagger that was held in Naruto's opposite hand.

"What was that?" Kakashi asked with shock evident in his voice.

"Sorry but any good Shinobi doesn't just reveal their techniques to others even if they are comrades. Besides, I don't trust you in the slightest so you definitely won't get an answer out of me." Naruto replied.

Kakashi began to struggle to his right foot while trying to think of a way that would quickly thaw out his frozen leg. He wasn't allowed much time to relax as Naruto suddenly vanished from his sight as he heard a sudden swoosh sound behind him before the tip of Hyôrinmaru was pressed against his lower spine. He looked over his shoulder to see that Naruto was standing behind him with the same bored expression of his face he had the entire time.

"Sorry but this game is over, Hatake-san. With your leg frozen and my sword aimed for a disabling blow you don't have many options. Especially, now that Shino has managed to cover you with his kikai and hime is ready to disable you with a few Jyuuken strikes." Naruto said.

Kakashi realized that Naruto was right as he realized the situation that he was now in. if he made a move he could either be struck by Hinata or Naruto and drained of his chakra by Shino which would leave him completely helpless either way. He was still trying to figure out he, Kakashi Hatake the copy ninja, had been taken down by three genin fresh out of the academy. Although, he also rationalized that he was also up against the now human form of Kyuubi whom had also cost the life of his sensei/father figure. With a heavy sigh, Kakashi knew that he had to swallow his wounded pride and accept defeat this time.

"Okay, the three of you got me even if I only guess this was part of your genin test made by Anko and Kurenai even if I don't know why." Kakashi said.

Naruto nodded and with a mental command the ice around Kakashi's leg shattered as he was left with a sensation of numbness. It would take him a few minutes to get enough chakra flow through his leg in order to restore proper movement. The three genin moved out of their finishing positions and stepped back a few feet from Kakashi.

Naruto grinned. "The mock mission of team 8 is completed and we will take our leave now."

Kakashi didn't get chance to ask them what their mission was as the three fled from the clearing with Hinata and Shino following Naruto to where he detected Anko and Kurenai to have been hiding. The silver-haired Jounin could only scratch his head in confusion before turning his attention to his own genin. Since they hadn't bothered to help him during his fight with team 8 he was going to take out some of his pent-up frustration on them as he taught them his own version of a lesson on teamwork. It wouldn't be long before he realized the true purpose of team 8's mission and would pass his team out of episode of extreme depression.

Meanwhile, team 8 once again found themselves in training ground 8 as they stood before Anko and Kurenai whom sported proud grins. The reason why was because Naruto held Kakashi's copy of Icha Icha paradise in his left hand before presenting it to Anko for her to inspect. After making sure that it was the real deal before nodding to Kurenai as they congratulated their new genin cell.

"That was excellent work, gaki's. We were impressed by how easily the three of you seemed to work together on your first mission together against someone that was a superior opponent. I can already see that you three having the potential to go far if you continue at this rate." Anko said.

"The only plausible reason we seemed to be able to defeat Hatake-san was because he underestimated us due to our status as new genin. If he were to treat us as normal enemy shinobi we would've had a much tougher time defeating him." Shino said.

"You're absolutely right even if he started to take you three seriously towards the end but it was a little late. One aspect of being a shinobi is to deceive your enemy and draw them into a false sense of security which will cause them to lower their guard and make it easier for you to take them down. However, Hatake has always been overconfident of his skills because of his sharingan eye hidden beneath his headband. If he had used it to take on the three of you I doubt you would've succeeded despite your teamwork." Anko said.

"An-o A-Anko-sensei, how c-can H-Hatake-s-san have a sh-sharingan if he is not a U-Uchiha like Sasuke-san?" Hinata asked, the adrenaline in her system allowed her to stutter a lot less.

"Back when Kakashi was on Yondaime-sama's genin team he was teamed with an Uchiha named Obito and a girl named Rin. During the last war, Kakashi lost his lost his left eye in battle while Obito had been caught in a rockslide made by the enemy. Rin was a capable med-nin and at Obito's request replaced Kakashi's missing eye with Obito's recently awakened Sharingan eye. This was the day Kakashi began his legacy to be known as the Sharingan Kakashi, the man who has copied a thousand jutsus." Kurenai replied.

Naruto scoffed. "That is one of the reasons I never really liked the Uchiha and their belief they were superior to everyone else. They stole the hard earned success of other shinobi even if it was an ally and made it seem like the skill was theirs to begin with. Their kekkai genkai allows them to learn things so much easier than others since all they have to do is copy someone else's techniques."

"It's not a simple as it seems because even Kakashi has admitted that certain jutsus are next to impossible for him to have used more than once. I don't really know what he meant by that but back when the Uchiha clan was still in Konoha they kept the secrets of their kekkai genkai closely guarded. To this day many still believe that there is more to the abilities of the sharingan than they told the council of Konoha." Anko said.

"I feel sorry for the day Sasuke tries to copy a technique from me since he'll learn the hard way that some of my techniques come with a price that only I can pay. I already know that he was most likely trying to copy what I was doing in my fight with Hatake and is probably going to demand I give him my sword or show him some of my techniques but won't get anything from me. He may get pampered by the civilians and some of the shinobi since he's the last Uchiha but to me he's nothing more than a spoiled gaki and I have my own special way of dealing with those type of people." Naruto said with a smirk.

Kurenai had to resist the urge to shudder as she realized how much Anko had trained Naruto when he was younger since the grin was reminiscent of hers whenever she was about to torture some unlucky soul in her own special way. She glanced at her close friend and saw an almost identical smirk on her face and could only mentally groan while hoping she didn't have to deal with a male and female Anko on a regular basis. She didn't need Shino and especially Hinata being traumatized by them or Hinata learning Anko's seduction techniques to use on Naruto. Although, she would be the first to admit that this new Naruto seemed a lot more attentive than he was during the academy and had to remind herself that it was merely because of his mask that he created. She clapped her hands to draw the full attention to herself before she addressed the three genin on their next activity for the day.

"Well that's enough of that for today since we would like to officially announce the three of you as the new team 8 under our command. As a reward for such a complete success we will take you three out to eat. While we're at it you can explain your plan to us and we will give you some advice on ways you could've improved even if it wasn't by much since your teamwork was spectacular." Kurenai said.

The three nodded and followed the two women as they made their way back towards Konoha's business district. They all laughed with how excited Anko became when she decided for everyone they were going to the dango shop and was walking at a rushed pace since they chose not to roof hop so they could talk more along the way. As Naruto walked alongside his larger group of comrades he realized that his list of precious people were growing and wondered what other surprises should he expect in the near future. He knew that as long as he had his team to back him he would face any enemy that stood before him as he continued on his path to greatness and show everyone that ever tried to put him down their mist

* * *

A/N: That's the end of chapter 3 which involved team 8's genin exam as well as a preview of some of Naruto's abilities as well as more character development. I didn't really try to go to heavy into character bashing in my opinion but I believe I have set a pace. I have made a few changes to the members of the harem as requested but it is not definite as of yet and still may change. Feel free to comment on my fight scene and I will see if I need to make more improvements.

The next chapter will include a bit of a timeskip as well as a mission for team 8 but it won't be the mission to Nami no Kuni since I'm not at that point yet. I will also reveal a bit of the history into the relationship between Kanae and Naruto as well as more character interaction and maybe a little bit of fluff. Please read and review and will try to post the next chapter as soon as possible and I thank those that have supported me so far.


	4. Passing Moment First CRank Mission

Naruto: Konoha's Shinigami

Chapter 4: Passing Moments; First C-Rank Mission

By: Terror of the Azure Flame

Disclaimer:

I don't own Naruto because Kishimoto does. If I did then Naruto wouldn't have to deal with the king of 'emo' and he would be a god among men.

Summary:

During Naruto's fight against Mizuki he dies but Kyuubi saves him by unlocking a power not seen since the Yondaime Hokage. What is the secret behind the two blades Naruto now possesses and what other secrets lay behind his new power and abilities? This will be a Naruto/Bleach crossover and a Narutoxharem with character bashing.

"Talking" normal talk

_'Thinking' _normal people thinking

"**Blah!" **Bijuu/summon talk

_**'Blah!' **_Bijuu/summon thinking

* * *

Hinata rolled forward to avoid the slash from Naruto's sword and spun around to face the blond while brandishing a dual elongated kunai that were a gift from Anko. Naruto held Senbonzakura in his right hand and held the pale-eyed girl in his sights with an impassive gaze. Charging forward, Hinata began a deadly dance as she try to get past any openings that she could find with her Byakugan in Naruto's defense. Senbonzakura flowed as Naruto held the sword in a slightly loose grip in order to allow his wrist to move quickly in his defense. The two were currently engaged in a training spar that had become a recurring occurrence since they had officially become team 8.

Over the course of the past few months, team 8 performed numerous D-rank missions as well as trained together. The three genin learned rather quickly that their sensei's had different approaches when it came down to their training. Anko mainly trained them by forcing them into situations where they had to avoid traps that she had setup that had them dodging projectiles in order to increase their agility. They also had to deal with her use of her summoning giant snakes to chase them around whenever they used training ground 44 or 'Forest of Death' as well as all of the giant animals that inhabited the forest. She had also taken upon herself to bring Hinata out of her shell and gain more confidence but Kurenai made sure that Anko didn't turn her into a mini-Anko clone. Kurenai focused on teamwork exercises and had them spar against each other as well as herself so that they could form team attack and defense patterns. She also took it upon herself to improve upon their skills by training them in what ninjutsu and genjutsu she knew. However, she knew that she couldn't really train them all that well in taijutsu and had no choice but to turn to Konoha's resident taijutsu expert, Gai Maito. The three teens were at first very weary upon their initial meeting with the bowl-haired Jounin to receive any training from him.

_Flashback…_

Kurenai and team 8 made their way to the training ground of last year's only remaining genin team, team 9. Kurenai had explained to them that they had asked the Jounin sensei of team 9 to help improve their taijutsu skills in exchange that she assisted his team with genjutsu and he agreed. Naruto knew that his taijutsu style was pretty efficient against just about any opponent that relied on an offensive style but against someone that remained defensive like him he would have to rely on his kenjutsu, ninjutsu, or some of the other skills he had learned from Hyôrinmaru and Senbonzakura. It wouldn't hurt to learn a new taijutsu style and he realized that he may even be able to combine the two to create a third style for him to use. Hinata was already proficient in Jyuuken and didn't want to learn a new style because Hyuga tradition dictated that the style was to remain pure so no other style was allowed to be learned by a Hyuga family member. She relented shortly after when Naruto commented that the traditional Jyuuken style he saw her used seemed to be a little stiff for her to use because she had a lot of flexibility. She had confided in him that she knew that and was training on a new form of Jyuuken that would incorporate her natural flexibility and Naruto had offered to assist her which she quickly accepted. He also explained that they may also be able to incorporate some of the new training they would receive into her style to make her even stronger. He also noticed that she was hesitant for another reason and Kurenai had explained that her cousin was a member of team 9 and the two had a bit of tension between the two of them. Both Naruto and Shino made it clear that they didn't wouldn't allow any harm to come to their teammate if it came down to it which made Hinata blush at the concern of her crush and friend. Lastly, Shino was participating since both Anko and Kurenai had explained to the Aburame that he needed to expand his avenues of attack since he was mainly a mid-range fighter that relied on his kikai insects or other clan techniques outside of the basic academy three. It didn't take much to convince the stoic boy since after a few sparring sessions with Naruto he realized how much of disadvantage he would be against an opponent that could attack him from all ranges.

The scene that the four arrived to was a bit shocking to even Naruto and Shino as they saw the members of team 9. They quickly knew who gut was by the bowl-cut black hair, wide caterpillar-like eyebrows and dark eyes. He was dressed in a green leotard with his hitai-ate wrapped around his waist and orange leg warmers with blue shinobi sandals. He wore an open traditional Jounin flak jacket over the leotard and didn't appear to carry any weapons making it known that he relied mainly on taijutsu. He was sparring against what Naruto could only describe as a mini-me since he was basically a mirror image of guy with the exception that he didn't wear a Jounin vest, had wide round eyes, and had bandages that covered most of his hands as well as his entire forearm up to his elbows. Naruto also noticed a male Hyuga that he knew was Hinata's cousin with long, dark hair that extended to his waist and was tied at the end and the same white, pupil-less eyes that many Hyuga had in common. He wore a cream colored short-sleeve jacket that had straps across the front and back as well as on the arms and a pair of navy shorts with blue shinobi sandals. Both his right arm and leg was wrapped in bandages and his kunai hold was strapped to his right thigh while his shuriken pouch was on the back of his left hip. He wore his hitai-ate on his forehead with two straps that came down the side of his face from some sort of cloth that ran beneath his hitai-ate. The final member was a girl with dark hair tied into two buns that made her look like a panda with two short bangs that came over her hitai-ate and chocolate brown eyes. She was dressed in a sleeveless pink Chinese style shirt that was trimmed in red around the neck and arms with dark blue pants that came to about mid-calf and blue shinobi sandals. Her kunai holder was strapped to her right thigh while her shuriken pouch was on the back of her left hip just like the Hyuga's.

Kurenai and her genin stood at the edge of the clearing as the watch Gai and his mini-me went back and forth in a taijutsu spar while the other two sat beneath a nearby tree observing them. They could tell by the way the two slid a little with each block that there was a lot of power behind each strike. They would've continued to observe for a little longer when Gai suddenly stopped and turned in their direction.

"I SEE THAT YOU FINALLY DECIDED TO JOIN US WHILE WE IN THE MIDDLE OF A MOST YOUTHFUL SPAR, KURENAI-SAN. ARE THESE THE YOUTHFUL STUDENTS OF YOU AND ANKO THAT YOU WISH FOR ME TO INSTRUCT IN THE YOUTHFUL WAYS OF TAIJUSTU AND STROKE THEIR FLAMES OF SPRINGTIME YOUTH?" Guy yelled in greeting.

The three genin of team 8 could only blink while Kurenai sighed and wondered why she let Anko talk her into meeting Gai for this.

"Yes, these are our students, Gai. The girl is my former charge, Hinata Hyuga, the dark-haired boy is Shino Aburame, and the blond is Naruto Uzumaki." Kurenai replied.

"LET ME INTRODUCE MYSELF AND MY MOST YOUYHFUL STUDENTS. I AM KONOHA'S BEAUTIFUL GREEN BEAST, GAI MAITO. THIS IS HANDSOME DEVIL IS MY MOST YOUTHFUL APPRENTICE, ROCK LEE. THE LONG-HAIRED BOY IS NEJI HYUGA AND THE GIRL IS TENTEN HIGARASHI." Gai said in his overly loud voice.

Naruto and Shino noticed that Neji was glaring at Hinata who had taken to move closer to Naruto while Tenten was focusing on Naruto which made Hinata frown at her.

Kurenai pinched the bridge of her nose. "Gai, could you please lower your voice to a more normal level. It's not like we're on the other side of the village that you need to yell in order to talk to us."

"My apologies but you caught me when I was at my youthful best while sparring with Lee and I couldn't control myself for a moment. It is not often that I'm given the opportunity to train the students of others in the most youthful art of taijutsu and I can't contain my excitement. I've also been looking forward to this since I've had the chance to hear many things about Uzumaki-san from my rival Kakashi and other Jounin on his skills." Gai said.

This seemed to perk the interest of the genin of team 9 as they now focused on Naruto while the blond kept an impassive expression. Kurenai was already aware of this since word had quickly spread how her team had managed to force Kakashi into submitting to them. Although, the copycat shinobi had claimed that he had done it since he didn't want to put in the effort to really take them on since with his skill he could've easily defeated them. It was because of this along with Naruto's already impressive reputation among those that knew the real Naruto Uzumaki that team 8 was considered one of the strongest genin teams. They were considered a tracking team because of Hinata and Shino but with the way they were being trained they were really an assassination and assault team. However, the more ignorant villagers dismissed team 8 as being nothing being compared to team 7 since they had Sasuke and were being led by the legendary Kakashi.

"I don't see what is so special about this Uzumaki since from what I've heard he is the dobe of this year's graduating class and is an orphaned loser. However, many of the older Hyuga seem to speak your name in reverence so I believe there is more to you than what meets the eye." Neji said, sarcastically.

"From the tone of your voice I can guess that personally you don't really seem to think that much of me or what you have heard." Naruto replied.

Neji smirked. "You could say that I don't expect much out of you after hearing so many rumors about your skills. Your status as the dobe is what makes everything seem so unbelievable and I would like to have a spar with you in order to prove that they have no true basis."

Naruto sighed. "I really don't need another stuck-up prodigy trying to prove their superiority over me. I already get enough of the challenges from the Uchiha and his demands that I show him some of my techniques. However, I would like to face you sine I don't like the way that you've been looking at Hinata-chan. I happen to be very protective of her and all of your glaring is starting to get under my skin."

"My issues with Hinata-sama is none of your concern, peasant. If you will accept my challenge I will gladly humiliate you in front of everyone here." Neji said with a frown.

"THAT IS A MOST YOUTHFUL IDEA, NEJI-SAN! LET'S HAVE THE MEMBERS OF BOTH TEAMS SPAR AGAINST EACH OTHER SO I CAN GUAGE EACH OF TEAM 8'S SKILL LEVEL." Gai yelled while striking a nice guy pose.

"THAT IS A MOST WONDERFUL IDEA, GAI-SENSEI. I WOULD LIKE TO TEST MY FLAMES OF YOUTH AGAINST TEAM 8 TO SEE IF THEY ARE MOST WORTHY OPPONENTS. I WOULD LOVE TO CHALLENGE NARUTO-KUN BUT NEJI-SAN HAS ALREADY CLAIMED THAT HONOR." Lee yelled while striking his own nice guy pose.

"YES, WE MUST FAN THE FLAMES OF YOUTH AS WE ENDEAVOR TO GROW STRONGER. WE SHALL PASS OUR FLAMES TO NARUTO-KUN AND HIS FRIENDS SO THAT THEY CAN THEY CAN ALSO ENJOY THE SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH." Gai added.

"GAI-SENSEI!" Lee yelled with tears flowing down his face.

"LEE!" Gai said with his own tears.

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

The remaining shinobi could only stare in horror as the two began to hug each other as a genjutsu of a sunset with crashing waves appeared out of nowhere. Naruto's left eye began to twitch at the scene and quickly brought his hands up into the release seal as he gathered a large amount of chakra.

"Kai!" Naruto said but to his shock nothing happen.

"Kai! Kai! Kai! Kai! Kai! Kai! Kai!" The results were the as before as he could not seem to dispel this genjutsu.

He looked to Kurenai since she was a genjutsu mistress only for her to shake her head at his unasked question.

"Sorry I don't know how Gai manages it but even I can't break that genjutsu and I've tried countless times." Kurenai said with a twitch of her eyebrow.

Naruto growled before drawing Senbonzakura from her sheath and raising her to hold the blade vertically in front of his face. The members of team 8 knew what was coming next but Neji and Tenten were confused by the blonde's actions. The bun-haired girl was also very intrigued by the sword since she had never seen such a majestic looking katana.

"Chire, Senbonzakura!" Naruto said as he called out Senbonzakura's release.

Neji and Tenten could only stare in amazement as the blade glow a brilliant pink before it began to dissolve starting from the tip of the blade. They wondered what happened since all that remained of the blade was the hilt that remained in Naruto's hand. They quickly noticed the pink petals that seemed to float around Naruto in a nonexistent breeze. Suddenly, the petals moved towards the two hugging men and engulfed them in a wall of pink which surprised the two genin since they could now see even more petals now than just a moment ago. The blades of Senbonzakura fell away to reveal Gai and Lee still hugging but they had a bewildered look as they were now only clad in their boxers which to the shock of all present were green with orange stripes with the words 'Flames of Youth'. Hinata, Kurenai, and Tenten could only blush in embarrassment as they averted their gazes while Naruto, Neji, and Shino could only shake their heads.

"Such an act of unyouthfulness, Naruto-kun." Gai said in a surprisingly normal tone of voice.

"I have very little patience for such foolishness and I've let you off lightly this time. Next time I may just use my other sword and give the two of you a nasty freezer burn. That was very disturbing so don't ever do that again when I'm around and everything will be fine, got it?" Naruto replied.

Both genin and Jounin nodded before Naruto resealed Senbonzakura into her blade form before sheathing her once again. He had barely taken his hand away from the hilt of his sword before he found Tenten standing before him. The bun-haired girl was regarding him with an intense gaze with hearts in her eyes which made Naruto a little nervous and made Hinata seethe with jealousy since another girl was taking interest in her Naruto.

"I've never seen a sword like that before. The only swords I've ever heard that possessed any sort of special abilities like that were the ones that belonged to the seven swordsmen of the mist. Tell me where did you get a sword like that from?" Tenten inquired in a weird voice.

Gai and Lee, whom had miraculously managed to get dressed once again, as well as Neji could only sigh since they knew how much Tenten obsessed with weapons. Naruto cocked his head to the side as he gazed at the girl, which caused Hinata and even Tenten to swoon at how cute the action was.

"I've had these swords for as long as I can remember but I don't know where they came from. The special abilities of these swords are something that I learned about during my training one day. Plus, I don't know much about the seven swordsmen so I can't say if they are the similar or not." Naruto said.

"Do you mind if I were to take a look?" Tenten asked in an excited voice.

Naruto sent a mental question to his partners and received a quick affirmation from Hyôrinmaru before nodding to the girl. Tenten's eyes lit up when Naruto reached over his shoulder to pull Hyôrinmaru from his sheath before handing the blade to her. With the care only seen in those that truly treasure their weapons Tenten examined the blade to the finest detail. She continued to study the blade for a few moments longer before handing it back to Naruto, who sheathed it as he regarded the girl.

"I can already guess that you're pretty good with your sword so how about you spar against me. So before Neji or Lee gets a chance to fight you I want to see just how good you really are with it." Tenten said with a grin.

Naruto looked at both Gai and Kurenai who nodded their ascent to which Naruto shrugged.

_Flashback end…_

The rest of the time spent with team Gai was sparring before they mapped out their new training regimen. On another note, Lee quickly deemed Naruto his eternal rival after the two had spared in which Naruto came to realize that without the aid of Shunpo he would've been overwhelmed by Lee's speed and was even more shocked to learn that he was wearing weights the entire time. Naruto knew that despite the fact he wore weights as well Lee wore way more than he did and he was also holding back on his speed as well. Naruto had consulted with his three residents with Kyuubi informing him that the weights would only focus on certain muscles at a time and had offered to teach him resistance seals since they would affect the whole body instead. When he asked how she knew about seals the queen of the Bijuu was quick to remind him that she did possess a human form and in her boredom she had taken interest in the Shinobi arts at one point with fuuinjutsu being one of her favorite subjects because of its obscurity. Although, she wasn't going to tell him it was also because of her two previous jinchuuriki that she was so well-informed was because like Naruto they had been Uzumaki's which specialized in fuuinjutsu as well their special chakra that adjusted their bodies to allow them to live longer than most humans. With everything now planned out between team eight and team Gai they were to meet every Tuesday and Thursday for Gai and Kurenai to swap teams and train. However, an unexpected side effect of this was a rivalry that sparked between Hinata and Tenten. During Naruto's first match against Tenten he had defeated the girl which caused her to constantly challenge him or ask him for kenjutsu lessons to improve her own skills. Since during the months team 8 was together Hinata had grown out of her shell quite a bit and was less prone to faint or stutter around Naruto but had yet to work up the courage to tell Naruto how she felt. She quickly noticed how Tenten was acting around Naruto in a similar fashion that she had acted around Neji and knew the girl had a crush on Naruto as well. A rivalry soon sparked as both girls were constantly vying for his attention and the matter was made worse when Naruto tried to appease them by spending his time equally with them whenever they had training. Naruto was well aware of what he was getting into and it didn't help the fact that Kyuubi and Senbonzakura were constantly whispering encouragements for him to respond to the advances of both girls. The difference between the two was that Tenten was much more obvious with her advancements but didn't act in the typical fangirl manner since her idea of getting to know Naruto better was to spar with him. Hinata, on the other hand, made subtle hints by asking Naruto to walk her home or inviting him over to her home after training. It was during one of the times Naruto chose to accept her offer that he became acquainted with the Hyuga family.

_Flashback…_

Hinata and Naruto made their way through the streets of Konoha's more prestigious area of the village that was mainly occupied by the clans of the village. The blond was ignoring the glares of the civilians and shinobi as he walked beside the Hyuga heiress as he escorted her home. Hinata could only frown as she witnessed this and heard some the whispers of 'hell spawn' and 'demon brat' that were thrown at her blond crush. She was amazed that Naruto seemed to take it all in stride and kept his bored expression on his face while ignoring the comments and looks. She knew that if she were in his place she would've long since caved in and would've ran home to safety of her room to get away from such hate. This made her even more determined to find out all that there was to know about Naruto and his past that seemed to be shrouded in mystery as to why he was hated by so many in the village. As they neared the gates of the Hyuga grounds, Hinata turned to Naruto with a shy smile as she worked up her courage.

"A-Ano, would you like to come inside for a little while, N-Naruto-kun? Father has expressed a desire to meet you." Hinata said, having mainly gotten over her stutter in the past few months.

"I'm not so sure that would be a good idea, hime. I don't want to cause any problems since if the rest of your family is anything like Neji." Naruto said.

Hinata giggled. "You don't have to worry about that, Naruto-kun. Actually, you are spoken of quite highly amongst the members of the Hyuga clan and many would like to meet you. After all, father has taken an interest in you for a long time now and has wanted to meet you ever since we first became a team. I'm sorry I didn't say so before but you always turned me down whenever I invited you."

"I still don't think it's a good idea but I'll do it for you this time, hime. At least I will know if anyone will try to kill me or not if I decided to ask you out on a date." Naruto said with a grin.

Hinata blushed and poked her index fingers together as she averted her gaze. Naruto could hear Kyuubi and Senbonzakura giggling and couldn't help chuckling since he found this action by Hinata to be very cute. Even though he had put a lot of effort into get her to overcome her shy nature and he will admit she has come a long way since she doesn't stutter as much but she still had that habit whenever he flirted with her.

'_At least you're not pushing her away any more like you were when you first became teammates. You've started to realize that although many don't think of you as a human those that do are precious and must be kept close to your heart for as long as you allow them to be. Hinata and the other girls are putting a lot of effort into making you see this even if they don't know everything about you.' _Senbonzakura said through their mental link.

"**It's because they realize that the kit is the more dominate alpha amongst his fellow ningen. Even at a young age he shows that he has the makings to be a fine leader one day soon and I must say I do feel a sense of pride that you are using my gifts to show the world how wrong they are. You have the support of the some of the most influential families of this village. You should take advantage of the situation and use their resources to put you in a more positive light." **Kyuubi said.

'_Why do you seem to care all of a sudden how the ignorant villagers see me? You are always suggesting that I just use my power to show them I'm not to be trifled with. Is it that you're trying to say that you actually care about my wellbeing, Kyuubi-hime?'_ Naruto retorted.

Kyuubi scoffed.** "You read too much into my actions, kit. I'm merely suggesting that you gain a solid position of standing within the eyes of the villagers. You seek to become the Hokage one day and if you have the backing of clan heads then, it will be a lot easier to obtain you goals. Plus, once you become a kitsune hanyou you will have to obtain multiple mates and what better mates than the kunoichi that belong to the major clans like the Hyuga and Yamanaka. You will need strong kits to carry on the legacy that you will create in my name."**

'_I don't think I could do something like that since I can see myself as being with more than one girl just for political gain. I've been manipulated before and I don't want to use others to get ahead and I don't want others to get hurt because of me. What happened with Kanae let me know that I may never find any form of true happiness.'_ Naruto thought, sadly. _'Kanae only wanted to be my friend and the villagers accused her of being a 'demon lover' because of that. They couldn't do anything permanent to me since you would always heal me so they took out their aggressions on her. It was only thanks to the Anbu that guarded me that she wasn't hurt too badly. That was the day I lost my first friend when her family became disgusted with the village and left. For a while I was consumed by rage and that was why I decided to become stronger since I will do everything in my power so that nothing like that happens again.' _An image of a girl with silver hair and amber eyes appeared before his mind's eye.

"**That is why I chose to give you such gifts so that you can protect your precious people from the ignorant villagers. Even amongst us kitsune we value our friends and family to go as far as to protect them with our lives. You possess those same qualities and that is why I'm beginning to see you as one of my very own kits." **Kyuubi said with surprising gentleness.

Naruto remained silent as he focused his attention back on to Hinata as they neared the Hyuga compound. Kyuubi was constantly showing him a different side to her on very rare occasions and made him wonder what her reasoning was. The way she acted sometimes and how she spoke to him reminded him of how he saw other children being treated by their parents when he was younger. The blond quickly shook his head to clear away the thought that Kyuubi was actually treating him like her child. Hinata noticed this and decided to question the blond.

"Is everything alright, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I was just thinking about a few things from my past but I'm fine so you don't need to worry."

Hinata regarded him for a few moments as they approached the gates before turning her focus to the two Hyuga branch members guarding the gate.

"Good evening, Hinata-sama!" The first guard greeted.

"It is a pleasure to see you as well, Uzumaki-sama!" The second guard greeted.

Naruto blinked a few times and looked at Hinata since he hadn't been expecting such a formal greeting without any malice. Hinata giggled at his confused expression from behind her hand for few moments before she spoke.

"I told you before that you are spoken of quite highly by the older members of the Hyuga clan and everyone is told to treat you with utmost respect." Hinata said once she controlled her giggling.

Naruto felt the uncontrollable urge to sigh since he was beginning to feel that the entire situation was going to have him feeling like some sort of specimen. He didn't know exactly why a clan like the Hyuga would hold him in high regard since he was sure that they were aware that he was the jinchuuriki for Kyuubi. However, he had to be extremely cautious with them since if they decided to pull some sort of stunt against him he would be hesitant to do anything since he wouldn't want Hinata involved.

The two teens made their way into the Hyuga compound and Naruto couldn't help but notice the beautiful layout of the compound. They walked along a stone pathway that made a path straight to the main building with branching paths that led to several gardens. The gardens had all sort of floral life that surrounded small ponds with benches along the edge of each one. He noticed several Hyuga sitting in meditating and guessed they were used like Zen gardens or something of the sort. He noticed the main building was of a traditional design and was surrounded by several smaller buildings.

Naruto was aware that the Hyuga were divided into the main and branch family after his many talks with Hinata and like the Hyuga heiress he didn't approve of the cage bird seal and how that branch members were treated. However, he was surprised that despite the tension between the two branches they were all respectful as they greeted him and he wondered what was really going on.

'_They seem to treat me like I'm royalty even though I'm a jinchuuriki but I can't figure out why. If a clan like the Hyuga can treat me with such respect why can't the rest of the villagers be the same way?'_ Naruto thought.

Hinata was growing concern by Naruto's silence since they entered the compound. She watched his facial expressions as various emotions played across his features and wondered what the blond could be thinking about.

"N-Naruto-kun, is everything alright?" Hinata asked.

Naruto looked up at her. "Yeah, I'm just wondering why your father wants to see me and why everyone is looking at me in such a way. I'm not really used to this sort of treatment and it's sort of giving me the creeps."

"Isn't this the way that you want people to look at you like when you become Hokage. I don't know for certain why father has made it clear that all of the Hyuga should always show you respect because of your great service." Hinata said.

"My 'great service'?" Naruto said in confusion.

"Yes, that is what he said to me on the day that I told him you were my new teammate but even before then he would ask me about you. Although, I thought that it was because of a different reason." Hinata said with a blush.

Naruto easily figured that she had originally thought the Hyuga head had been asking her about him due to her crush on him. However, he didn't get to think much more on the matter as they rounded a corner and he collided with a solid body. He took a step back to brace himself while the other person fell. Taking a look at the person he found himself staring at a young Hyuga girl. She had long dark hair that extended to her waist and the same white eyes that all Hyuga possessed. She was dressed in a purple training outfit with fishnet armor worn underneath. The girl bore a resemblance to Hinata and seemed to be around the age of ten.

The girl scowled at him. "Why don't you watch where you are going, baka?"

"My apologies but I didn't see you when I came round the corner." Naruto said in an attempt to be polite.

"H-Hanabi-chan!" Hinata said in surprise.

Hanabi blinked before turning her gaze to Hinata having noticed her for the first time. "Nee-chan!"

Naruto sighed. "I guess this would be your sister, Hanabi?" Hinata nodded. "I should've guessed since you two do look alike. Your sister had told me a lot about you and I'm glad to finally meet you, Hanabi-chan."

The young Hyuga finally realized who she was staring and began to blush. Ever since her sister began to crush on Naruto Hanabi had always wondered about what made the blond so special. It wasn't until she found a picture of Naruto that her sister kept that she saw what her sister saw and also developed a crush on him as well. Although, she this was her first time meeting him in person she had overheard her sister as well other clan members talking about his legendary pranking abilities with him always outsmarting chuunin and jounin that tried to capture him as well as his success against the legendary, sharingan Kakashi. With everything that she was hearing about him it made her want to meet him all the more and now he was standing before him and now all she could do was pull an imitation of her sister in blushing before her crush.

'_This is just great. My first time meeting Naruto-sama and I have to snap off at him make him think I'm a rude little girl. He probably won't even talk to me anymore after this and nee-chan will have him all to herself.'_ Hanabi thought, dejectedly.

Naruto saw the blush that now stained her cheeks and knelt down so that he was eye level with the younger girl. Hanabi blushed even more at the close proximity and Hinata could only giggle since she was aware of Hanabi's crush on Naruto and how she was now acting much like herself before Naruto began working on her confidence issue.

"You aren't hurt or anything, Hanabi-chan?" Naruto asked in a gentle tone.

Hanabi felt herself swoon at the sound of his voice and nodded. "Hai, I'm alright and I apologize for my rudeness, Naruto-sama. I hope that I didn't offend you and I won't let it happen again."

Naruto sighed then, smiled. "I already told you it was my fault so you don't have to apologize and I would prefer if you dropped the 'sama' since it makes me feel old. I would really feel honored if you called me 'Naruto-kun' just like your sister."

"H-Hai, N-Naruto-kun!" Hanabi replied, surprising herself by stuttering.

Naruto reached forward to place a hand on her head as his gentle smile became his trademark foxy grin. Standing back up to his full height, he regarded the blushing girl for a moment longer before shifting his focus to a smiling Hinata.

"We better get going, Hinata-chan."

Hinata nodded and began to once again lead Naruto through the halls of the Hyuga compound to her father's private study. A loud squeal was heard and Naruto could only chuckle while Hinata giggled. A few minutes more of walking and the two genin found themselves in front of the door that lead to the Hiashi's private study. Hinata announced their presence and waited the normal five seconds before they were told to enter.

Hiashi Hyuga sat at his desk and regarded the two as they entered his office and Naruto found himself a bit unnerved by his gaze as it settled on him. It was a tense few moments as neither of the three occupants spoke for different reasons. Hinata didn't speak because of her fear of her father while Naruto didn't know what was to be expected of him and Hiashi because he was observing Naruto's reaction to him. He also noted that Hinata was slowly inching closer to him and knew that it was because Naruto was also the girl's greatest source of strength. This was something he regretted since it was the death of his wife that forced him to be cold to his eldest daughter so that she could grow strong enough to one day succeed him as clan head but it had the opposite effect as she drew herself into a shell of self-doubt. Even when he tried to be kind to her it was of no use since the fear that he had unwillingly planted was deeply rooted. He was grateful that since she became a member of team eight she was a bit more confident and her skills in Jyuuken were steadily improving. This was one of the reasons why he wanted to talk with Naruto among other things. Hiashi briefly activated his Byakugan to make sure he had no eavesdroppers before activating a privacy jutsu.

"I am grateful that you have finally chosen to accept my invitation to have a private talk, Uzumaki-sama. I have wanted to have this opportunity to talk with you for quite some time about a few details that concern you and your status in this village. However, since it is quite a delicate matter I had to wait for the right opportunity to present itself." Hiashi said.

"I am honored that you would request my presence since I know that you are well aware of my status, Hiashi-sama. I would have accepted you invite when Hinata-chan first extended it to but I had to be cautious since I've had many bad experience in similar situations over the years." Naruto replied.

Hiashi nodded. "Yes, I am well aware of the ignorance that has been displayed by the villagers but I can assure you need not worry of that from the Hyuga. Our Byakugan allows us to see you for who you truly are as the hero of this village for your burden that you have been sacrificed for. It is because of this terrible burden that forced you to give up any sort of happiness that you have gained the respect of the Hyuga and many of the other shinobi clans as well as our support."

"Hokage-sama has made aware of everything that you've done for me in the past and I'm glad that I'm seen for who I really am and not who I'm perceived as. My desire is to protect this village and its citizens even if I'm not welcome because this is my home and I have precious people here such as Hinata-chan." Naruto said.

Hiashi nodded. "My daughter is another reason why I have chosen to have this talk with you."

Hinata felt a sense of dread at the words of her father and out of a need for assurance she grabbed Naruto's hand. The blond didn't look at her but enclosed her smaller hand in his while rubbing his thumb in small circles along the back of hers. Hiashi took note of this and realized that what he would have to say next would be a lot easier.

"If I may ask what do you wish to speak to me about concerning, Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked.

"I've noticed that since Hinata joined you as a member of team eight her skills in Jyuuken have been steadily improving. Also, she has begun to become more confident in herself and though I am saddened that I was the cause of her self-doubt but I appreciate for what you've done so far. I made a grave mistake when Hinata was younger when I tried to force her to become strong at a young age but I took the incorrect approach since my grief at the time made me act quite harsh." Hiashi said.

Naruto took a glance at the saddened expression on Hinata's face and wondered what Hiashi was getting at. He cocked his head to the left as he regarded the older man's expression as he searched for some sort of sign to his intentions. He gave Hinata's hand a squeeze as if to reassure himself and was about to speak when Hiashi interrupted.

"The reason why I say this to you is because I would like for you to continue to assist Hinata in her training. She shows great promise but because of my own intervention that growth was stunted but now she has begun to grow once again and I don't want to interfere so I ask that you help her. You may not be able to train her in traditional Jyuuken but I'm aware that Hinata has been developing her own personal style." Hiashi said with a smirk.

Hinata gasped. "H-how do y-you kn-know?"

Hiashi's smirk grew. "I have mastered my Byakugan to the point that my range encompasses the entire village so I am always able to see you and your activities. I realized some time ago that the traditional Jyuuken forms were not suitable for you and I wanted to instruct you in the style of your mother but I was unable to do so. I could not find the scrolls that she left behind but as I watched you train I noticed that your forms are quite similar to hers. Like you your mother realized that the traditional Jyuuken forms were too stiff to accommodate her natural flexibility and created her own style with plans to teach both you and Hanabi."

"F-Father, I never knew and I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. I thought that you wouldn't approve of since the elders always said that we should keep the Jyuuken style pure." Hinata said.

Hiashi scoffed. "The elders have always chosen to stick to the old traditions and refuse to change with the times. When they learned of Hitomi's creation of a new form of Jyuuken they were quite displeased and even threatened to banish her from the clan if she continued to develop it. On the surface, she appeared to concede but Hitomi continued to train in secret and I allowed her to do so by drawing attention away from her. It was unfortunate that she contracted her illness and the strain of Hanabi's birth was too much for her weakened body since she would've loved to see your own style. I know that one day you will make a strong clan head and I want Naruto to help you reach that goal."

Hinata smiled at Hiashi's kind words. "Thank you and I will make you proud of me, father."

Naruto realized that there was probably another meaning to Hiashi's words and when he saw that glint in his pale eyes he blushed. Hiashi knew that Naruto had caught on and realized that there was much more to Naruto than was shown to everyone else. Since he had entered the room he had been respectful and acted with an air of dignity that was mainly seen amongst those of nobility. Hiashi was unaware that Kyuubi and Senbonzakura had drilled lessons of etiquette into his being during their nightly mental training sessions. Kyuubi had reasoned that he would become of nobility once he ascended to a kitsune hanyou and he should learn how to properly act.

"Hiashi-sama, I will continue to help Hinata-chan grow stronger not just because you asked me to but because she is a someone I will do all within my power to protect." Naruto said.

Hiashi nodded. "I am glad that you feel that way about Hinata and if there is ever anything that you require that is within my power to grant you then, feel free to ask. The entire Hyuga clan is already within your eternal debt and we may never be able to repay but we will try." Naruto nodded. "I have kept you detained long enough and I look forward to have a conversation with you on more personal matters at a future date."

Naruto nodded once again before turning to Hinata. "I'll see you later, Hinata-chan!"

Hinata smiled, shyly. "H-hai, Naruto-kun!"

Naruto returned her smile with one of his own as he released her hand and with a quick bow to Hiashi was gone. Hiashi focused his gaze onto his eldest daughter who was still staring after Naruto even if he was gone and couldn't help but smirk.

'_With both Hanabi and Hinata showing interest in Naruto it will only benefit the clan in the future if he were to marry one of them. The most logical choice would be Hinata but she would have to renounce her claim to heiress if she were to do so. However, I doubt that she would protest such an act but with Hanabi's newfound crush it may cause some tension between the two for a while. I will wait to see how things will play out before I make a decision and with Naruto's help I may be able to reunite the clan as was the dream of Hitomi and now Hinata.' _Hiashi thought.

_Flashback end…_

* * *

Naruto jumped back to avoid a slash from Hinata that was aimed at his head and quickly brought Senbonzakura up to block her follow through thrust from her other hand. He dropped low to perform a quick sweep but Hinata quickly flipped away to gain some distance to evaluate her opponent. Naruto dropped into a defensive stance as he waited for Hinata to initiate her attack once again. He didn't have to wait long as the lavender eyed girl dashed toward him with a burst of chakra enhanced speed while twirling her kunai by the rings. The two seemed to form an intricate dance with every strike and parry between the two and their spectators were amazed by the two.

Anko and Kurenai had to admit that ever since Naruto began to train alongside Hinata and Shino the skills of their two genin were rapidly improving. It was not to say that Naruto was not improving as well since the two managed to show flaws in Naruto's fighting style that the blond was improving upon at a steady rate. With the progress the three were showing they had the potential to be the strongest genin team in Konoha despite the protests of Gai and Kakashi since they believed they had the strongest teams since they had prodigies on their teams. However, if Neji and Sasuke were considered prodigies because of their bloodlines then, Naruto could be considered a prodigy because of his hard work and his determination to improve his teammates as well as himself. This was one of the reasons both women were glad the Hokage had made them Naruto's jounin sensei since he had so many possibilities and they wanted to say that they help him achieve new levels of strength along his shinobi career.

Hinata blocked a diagonal slash from Naruto but the impact caused her arms to go numb and forced her to drop both of her kunai. She quickly jumped back to avoid a follow up but Naruto didn't pursue her but instead sheathed Senbonzakura before adopting his own personal taijutsu style that he called 'The Flow'. The flow was one of two taijutsu styles that Naruto developed and used the power behind an opponent's strike to add momentum to his own strikes by incorporating spins of his body. It was mainly a defensive style since it relied on the opponent to attack in order for it to be effective. Naruto stood with his side facing Hinata with his front left leg straight while his right leg was bent at a forty-five degree angle. His left arm was held diagonally in front of him with his fist facing upward while his right arm was held at a forty-five degree angle across his stomach with his palm facing his opponent. Hinata noted his stance and took her own stance that was her modified version of Jyuuken. She stood with her feet close together with her right foot slightly forward and her left foot slightly back with her leg slightly bent to hold more of her weight. Her arms were held closer to her body than the traditional Jyuuken forms with her left hand about chest level and her right hand at her stomach. Her Byakugan was active since she had advanced to the point that she no longer required hand signs to achieve her kekkai genkai. The two combatants merely watched each other for any openings in the others stance that could be exploited as they mentally went over the possible outcomes of their fight in different scenarios as they guessed the other would react. As usual Hinata was the first to strike since she knew that Naruto couldn't attack in this stance and the entire purpose of training with him was to work on her Jyuuken form even more. She lead her attack with a quick spin to her right before lashing out with a chakra-less palm strike with her right. Naruto blocked with his right forearm and used the power behind the strike to spin to his right while keeping his leg extended as he applied chakra to his feet to propel his spin even faster. As he was completing his spin he tried for a backhand strike with his left that Hinata ducked before quickly shifting his weight to his left leg as he realigned his body to bring up a knee strike. Hinata blocked the blow with her left forearm before she attempted to a palm strike at Naruto's exposed stomach. Naruto quickly blocked with his right hand and grasped her hand before pulling her forward while bringing his elbow down towards her temple. Hinata blocked with her free hand and drew them both into a stalemate as she slid her leg between his to press her right knee against his right thigh causing him to slightly unbalance as he had to place more weight on his left to remain standing. A brief smile passed between the two and any onlooker would have considered their positions to be rather suggestive. With a brief nod the two broke apart before quickly resuming their spar with each other as the other members of team eight watched with a critical eye. The spar continued for another thirty minutes before Kurenai decided to call it quits.

"Okay, both of you that will be enough sparring for now. Come over here and we can hear about you next assigned task for today." Kurenai announced.

Both teens ended their spar and made their way over to where the red-eyed beauty and the other two stood at the edge of the forest. They were both slightly exhausted and had taken quite a few falls so their appearance was a bit mussed up. Kurenai allowed the two to recover from their exhaustion before motioning for the three genin to sit before her and Anko underneath the shade of the tree line.

"Okay, we've done enough training for today and now it's time for a mission but this won't be a normal d-rank as we've been doing in the past. I had a discussion with Hokage-sama and because we've done twice as many as the required d-ranks we've been given our first c-rank mission." Kurenai said.

Anko grinned. "I know you gaki's should be happy to hear that since all these d-ranks have making me go crazy and all of our skills to go to waste. Since this will be our first c-rank we've asked that it not be anything major. As I've told you before the main purpose behind the creation of team eight is that we're an assassination and assault team but you're not at that level yet so we won't be doing those sorts of missions just yet. We're aware that with the exception of possibly Naruto-kun that none of you have taken a human life and we will address that issue at a later date. I know that you may not like that idea of killing but as shinobi it is a part of our lifestyle that we will eventually have to take a life." Anko said.

"Anko is right about that but at the same time you must remember that while it is a part of our shinobi lifestyle you mustn't kill just for the thrill of it or because you can take a life. A shinobi that enjoys taking the lives of others is a shinobi that has very little to no value for human life and would be considered a monster by others." Kurenai said and noticed Naruto flinch at this. "However when you kill to protect those that are precious to you and keep them safe then you honor the 'Will of Fire' that has been the basis of how Konoha shinobi handle their missions. This is the teachings of the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokage's that was taught at the founding of Konoha and we continue to pass on their teachings to each new generation that succeeds that last."

Each genin nodded at this but Naruto still had some doubts although both his spirit partners constantly assured him that he was no demon as the village saw him. Kyuubi was strangely quiet but even the demoness wanted to assure Naruto that his heart was to pure to be considered a demon. Despite all the mental conditioning they constantly placed him through while was asleep he still believed that with each person he had to kill he would be proving the villager's belief that he was a demon in human skin. The three spirits could only hope that through his interaction with those he considered precious that he would eventually come to terms with all aspects of his personality.

"We want the three of you to go and get changed before meeting us back at the front of the Hokage tower in about thirty minutes." Kurenai said.

She received a nod from the three genin before her and Anko vanished in a leaf shushin to make some preparations. The three teens quickly made their way to their homes to change and within thirty minutes they all stood before their senseis at the front door of the Hokage tower. As they made their way inside, Hinata and Shino noticed some of the gazes that were directed at their blond teammate by the various chuunin and jounin. They could tell by each of their looks that these were among those that had respect for Naruto amongst the most of the jounin while most of the chuunin disliked the blond. Hinata grabbed Naruto's hand to assure him as she noticed him staring back at each of them with his trademark emotionless gaze while Shino's hive was buzzing in agitation as a sign of Shino's displeasure. Anko and Kurenai were glaring at the offenders while moving closer to Naruto to which the blond was grateful for each of the actions of his friends. It wasn't long more before the group reached the mission room and entered inside. They found Sarutobi seated behind the desk with Iruka serving as assistant since there was no academy for him to teach at the moment. Both men smiled when they saw the members of team eight enter the room since they had been waiting for their arrival since they wanted to hear a little about Naruto's progress. Naruto dropped his emotionless mask and produced a warm smile as he saw the two influential male figures of his chaotic life.

"It's good to see you members of team eight. I take it you're here to pick up a c-rank mission that you submitted a request for." Sarutobi asked.

Kurenai nodded. "Yes, Hokage-sama, we felt that team eight should move on to the next level of their missions since they have a solid understanding of each other."

"I agree since I've reviewed all of the records of your d-rank missions as well as the reports that you submitted of their training regiments for the past three months. I'm surprised that you've taken this long since you have done far more d-ranks the other rookie teams combined. However, I'm not all that surprised considering the laziness of Asuma and Kakashi." Sarutobi said then, smiled. "It's good to see you as well, Naruto-kun. You haven't been paying me a visit as often as before and I'm starting to feel like I'm being put out to the side by my potential successor."

"Sorry about that but I've been working with my team and training on my own that I haven't left myself much free time, Jiji. I'll try to pay you more visits in the near future and I need to see Konohamaru again since he's constantly leaving notes at my apartment." Naruto said with his own grin.

"Naruto, show Hokage-sama the proper respect that he deserves." Iruka said in a scolding tone.

Sarutobi raised his hand in a placating manner. "There is no need for that, Iruka. Naruto and I have long since come to an understanding on the matter since I see him as a grandson so it's alright. He knows when to refer to me with the respect that I deserve and amongst this group it's not really a requirement."

"So, does that mean I get to call you jiji as well?" Anko asked with a grin.

Sarutobi frowned, playfully. "I may allow Naruto to get away with it but I don't think I can think of you as my granddaughter for obvious reasons."

Anko quickly got the message behind his reasons and glared at the elderly kage while adjusting her trenchcoat to make sure her assets stayed well-hidden. Iruka also got the message and blushed while rubbing the bridge of his nose as he averted his gaze.

Kurenai sighed. "Hokage-sama, I would like to know the mission that you've picked out for my team?"

Sarutobi chuckled while Naruto grinned as they could both hear the edge to her voice as they knew of her dislike of perverts. Hinata and Shino felt a bit out of place at the moment and at the same time were glad that Naruto was back to his normal relaxed self since they only saw this side of him when he was around those he trusted.

"Yes, I've decided to give you a simple escort mission that requires you to accompany a young heiress back to her village. She was recently here finalizing a trade deal between our two villages and now that she is done would like an escort back. It won't to be too difficult of a mission since the most you should encounter will probably being some bandits that tend to target clients like her. Plus, she also specifically requested that Naruto Uzumaki be a part of the team that escorts her home for reasons she won't say." Sarutobi said with an amused expression.

Naruto tilted his head in confusion. "Ano, do I know this girl or something, Jiji?"

"I'm not aware of you ever meeting her but you could've met her during one of the times you went me on my business trips. You will have to ask her yourself since she should be hear at any moment since I dispatched an Anbu to retrieve her on your arrival." Sarutobi answered.

The three female members of team eight looked at the blond in confusion since they wondered why some mysterious girl would request their Naruto specifically. They would've been amused how each of them seemed to be possessive of the blond and at the same time jealous of an unknown girl. Iruka and Sarutobi saw the reactions of the three females with Hinata not being a surprise but Anko and Kurenai were unexpected and they wondered what brought this on. Naruto was seven years their junior to both women and although in the shinobi world age sometimes had little value it would still be frowned upon by the civilians considering their hatred for Naruto. Any further thought on the two women and their feelings for the blond were put on hold as the door opened to reveal a girl around fifteen being led in by a tiger masked Anbu. The girl was dressed in a traditional kimono of white and blue that most royal figures wore. She had shoulder-length light brown hair flowed freely with two bangs that framed her face. Her eyes were a vibrant blue much like Naruto's with alabaster skin that showed she didn't spend much time outside. She held herself in a manner that most regal types seemed to carry themselves but gave off an air of warmth as was shown by her smile. Once again the three females in the room found themselves becoming jealous of this elegant beauty.

"Miss Kitima, this is team eight and they will be the ones that escort you back to Uzurai village. Team eight; I'd like to introduce you to your client, Miss Ayane Kitima, heiress to the Kitima clan one of suppliers of the metal ores we use for weapon making." Sarutobi said.

Kurenai stepped forward. "My name is Kurenai Yuhi and this is my co-jounin, Anko Mitarashi. The dark haired boy is Shino Aburame, the girl is Hinata Hyuga, and the blond is Naruto Uzumaki. We are the team that was chosen to escort you and we promise to carry out our duty to the best of our ability."

Ayane nodded before making her way over to Naruto who tilted his head as his normal sign of confusion as he regarded the girl. She didn't seem to be anyone that he was familiar with and this left the question why she wanted him to be on the team that escorted her home. The girl made a circle around him as she looked him over with a critical eye while making appraising sounds.

"So, I finally get to meet you, Naruto Uzumaki. She has told me a lot of things about you and I can say that she did not exaggerate in the slightest about you. Everything she said about your physical appearance being most pleasing to the eye is correct and I must agree full heartedly." Ayane said as she came to stand before him.

Naruto was even more confused. "Who is this 'she' you're talking about and how do you know about me since I don't believe we've ever met before?"

"You are correct that this is our first meeting and I cannot divulge the identity of the one that told me about for reasons that I'm not at liberty to discuss. However, that is of little consequence since you're assigned duty is to escort me home, correct?" Ayane replied.

Naruto wanted to ask more but the urging of Hyôrinmaru told him that now was not the time to ask questions. With a nod, Naruto showed that he understood the situation and that he was to assume his duty as her escort.

"Good, I look forward to talking with you more once we begin our journey home. It will take about a week of travel by carriage back to my home village so let us make haste. While I do love it here in Konoha I am feeling a bit homesick at the moment." Ayane said as she turned away.

The others made their own motions of agreement and Sarutobi was just about to dismiss them when the door to the chamber opened to allow team seven entry. Once the members of team eight saw the disgruntled faces of team seven they knew that they had once again dealt with another lame d-rank mission. It was confirmed when they saw the infamous Tora being held by sakura as well as the scratches on each genin. Kakashi, as usual, has his face buried in Icha Icha and was seemingly unaware of his current surroundings but they knew otherwise. Once the three genin caught sight of Naruto they decided to taunt him on the fact that they had completed another mission while from his clean appearance they assumed he was about to receive one. Unfortunately for them Naruto was in the mood to pick fun at team seven and with the others with him he didn't have to worry about Kakashi trying to lash out at him.

"Well, if it isn't the dobe and his loser teammates. While you're just standing around looking lost as usual I'm on my way to becoming stronger. At this rate, I'll be Hokage while you're still a mere genin under my command." Sasuke sneered. Sakura agreed in normal loud fashion.

Kakashi looked up from his book at this and frowned when he saw the blond. This was an act that didn't go unnoticed by Sarutobi or Ayane since she was almost directly in front of the blond which caused a frown to grace her features.

"Hinata, I don't know why you waste your time hanging around the dobe when you can be with an alpha like me. I promise that once you ditch him and become my mate that I'll make you the happiest girl in the village." Kiba said with a lecherous grin.

Akamaru buried himself in his master's coat since he considered Naruto his alpha just like the entire canine of the Inuzuka despite his smell of foxes. The females in the room glared at him while the kunoichi made plans to the neuter the horny dog-boy. With his emotionless mask back in place, Naruto gazed back at each of the members before he decided to make his retort.

"I don't really think I would have to really worry about following your lead since we've already have far more missions under our belt, Uchiha. Besides, I've now been assigned to my next mission that will take me out of the village and preserve my dignity so that I don't have to worry about you trying to rape me, Sas-gay." Naruto said then, turned to Kiba. "What makes you think that Hinata-hime will see you as an alpha when even your own sister calls you a runt? That would be such a distasteful choice for someone of Hinata's delicate beauty to choose you as her boyfriend. As her teammate and friend I will have to put you to sleep or I'll just have to turn you over to your master if you keep up this bad behavior, runt." Naruto said in his monotone.

A few snickers were heard from the assembled crowd as even Ayane added a few delicate giggles. The genin of team seven glared at Naruto in return and wanted to put the blond in his place for once.

"Akamaru is not my master, dobe. I'll show you that I'm a true alpha and prove to my sister that I'm not a runt." Kiba howled.

Naruto seemed to ignore him as his gaze was on the hilt of Senbonzakura as if he was in another world. Kiba was about to go on another tirade when he was interrupted by Sakura as she stomped towards Naruto.

"How is it that you get a mission that takes you out of the village, baka? The only way you could do that is if you received a c-rank or higher and you're just a no-talent loser that will screw up anything that's given to you. If anyone should be receiving that sort of mission then, it should be Sasuke-kun." Sakura snapped.

"I am well aware of the status of Sasuke Uchiha as the last of the Uchiha clan but sadly I cannot say that I would feel quite safe with him protecting me. I've heard that compared to the Uchiha of old he has all of the skills of a regular shinobi since he has yet to awaken his sharingan. I specifically requested Naruto-san as my escort since I have a rather reliable source when it comes to his abilities and felt that he would be more than adequate to service me." Ayane said as she stepped into Sakura's path.

"How dare you care a loser like Naruto-baka to a prodigy of the Uchiha like Sasuke-kun? Who do you even think you are insulting Sasuke-kun like that tramp? You think because you dress up like a doll that any guy is supposed to fall for your looks. I look far more sexier than you do so get lost before I have to get violent and rearrange your face." Sakura said, angrily while cracking her knuckles.

"I'm afraid that if you attempt to harm my client then, I will have to intervene on her behalf to stop you. As to who she is I would like to introduce you to Ayane Kitima and she is the heiress to one of the villagers more prominent clients as well a supplier of our metal ores. It would not look good for relations between our two villages if something were to happen to her while she were here so please restrain yourself. Also, don't insult her by comparing her beauty to yours when we know you're actually a man trying to act feminine." Naruto said with a straight face.

"Hey, I was wondering about that every time I saw the pink-haired harpy. She sounds like a banshee but at the same time she's a little to masculine to be a girl. I'm glad she hasn't tried to make a pass at me or I would have to show her why I'm called Konoha's Snake Mistress." Anko added with a predatory grin.

Sakura gulped as she had heard of the stories of Anko from Kakashi and how she was known for torturing enemy shinobi in the most vicious manners of physical torture. She still couldn't believe that the crazy snake lady was allowed to be a jounin sensei in the first place and was grateful she wasn't her sensei. The pink-haired girl quickly turned her anger back onto Naruto.

"You wouldn't dare lay a hand on me and you know it, Naruto-baka. No matter how you try to act all cool like Sasuke-kun I'm still you're Sakura-chan and you still love me. Just stop all this playing around and maybe I'll give you one of those dates you're always asking for if I'm in a good mood." Sakura said with a cute smile.

Naruto shudder violently at that before turning his gaze to Sarutobi. "If I ever need to be tortured to death then, all my enemies will have to do is put us on a date together. I think you're pink hair color isn't the only think that isn't normal about you since I think that oversized forehead is a bit hollow on the inside. Hokage-sama, I think I may need to be reassigned somewhere really far away if Sakura keeps on insisting that I like her."

"Oh, we'll see about that when the time comes, Naruto-kun." Sarutobi said with a chuckle.

Tired of being ignored Sasuke re-entered the conversation. "Hokage-sama, how can you give this no-talent loser a c-rank mission and not me? I am an Uchiha elite and I should be the one guarding a client of her stature so that we can assure that she safely makes it back to her home village. The dobe doesn't have the skill to do so and it's clear to everyone here that the other members of team eight would have to cover for him to make up his lack of skill."

Naruto was about to launch a retort in Sarutobi's defense when Kakashi decided to appeal his team more to the client. He was going to use this opportunity to put the Kyuubi brat down a few pegs and show him why Sasuke would always be better than him once he got the Hokage to assign his team the mission.

"With all due respect but Sasuke is correct, Hokage-sama. My team seven is currently the strongest of all the current rookie genin and we should make sure that the client has the best in protection. Plus, I will be along to ensure that nothing happens to her should any unexpected trouble should arise." Kakashi said in his lazy drawl.

Anko bristled. "Are you trying to imply that if something were to happen that you could handle a problem that Kure-chan and I couldn't, Hatake?"

"Now, I'm not saying that you couldn't handle it but the chances of success would greatly increase if I were there instead of the two of you." Kakashi replied with an eye smile.

"Why you chauvinist piece of-!" Anko snapped as she prepared to lunge.

"That will be enough of this bickering." Sarutobi said in a commanding tone.

Immediately all parties grew quiet with Anko barely managing to restrain herself as she saw the smug look Kakashi was still directing at her. The remaining members of team eight were also pissed at the barb at their skills made by Kakashi and team seven.

"I am sorry to inform you that the decision has already been made and team eight will be escorting Miss Kitima back to her village. I am quite confident that they will be more than capable of handling themselves and ensuring her safety and since she specifically requested them I will honor that request. Do I make myself clear?" Sarutobi continued in the same tone.

Kakashi lost his smug look. "Hai!"

The rest of team seven could stare at the Hokage as if he had lost his mind while team eight all held straight faces. Ayane smiled at Naruto and moved to stand beside him which once again drew her three jealous gazes. Naruto was aware this and could only mentally sigh as he heard his spirits laughing at his recurring predicament.

"Very well, now that this has all been taken care of. Team eight you are dismissed to carry out your assigned mission. I will expect to see you again in a little over a weeks' time if all goes well as I know it will." Sarutobi said in a softer tone.

Team eight nodded and with Ayane in tow all made their way out of the mission room to prepare for their next mission. Kakashi and the rest of team seven could only glare at their retreating forms and continued to do so even as Kakashi begrudgingly gave his oral report to Sarutobi. Their anger at team eight only increased when Sarutobi denied them the chance to take a c-rank mission of their own with Iruka and Sarutobi making it clear that team seven was not ready for an advanced mission just yet. Of course this would not bode well for team eight upon their return to the village. As the members of team eight prepared to undertake their next mission one could only wonder what would await the genin with their first time outside of Konoha as a team.

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A/N: That's the end of chapter 4 of Konoha's Shinigami. This chapter was mainly to deal with a bit of time skip as well as a mission but since I didn't want to make the chapter too large I split it as well as tone down the content of the time skip. I have had several reviews that have made concern of my slow progress and I do apologize but I have very little free time between my own shift duties here on the base. I will bring each new chapter as quickly as possible but it's rather difficult to gain a flow when I have to stop then try to pick up where I left off each time. Normally, I would preview a bit on the next chapter but I want to leave my readers guessing.

On an additional note, I was originally planning to keep the harem in single digits but with the number of requests for more members it may become a double-digit number. I still remain undecided on a final number and potential mates may go elsewhere if I don't feel I can make it work to my writing style. This story has had a high volume of traffic for the first three chapters but very few reviews. Although, I don't really mind I would like more input as to what my readers think of my story as it what a writer would consider his pride to accept potential ideas and critics from his readers. As always please read and review and I thank everyone that has supported me so far. So until next chapter peace and bye for now.


	5. Conspiracies and A Reunion with the Past

Konoha's Shinigami

Chapter 5: Conspiracies and a Reunion with the Past

By: Terror of the Azure Flame

Disclaimer:

I don't own Naruto because Kishimoto does. If I did then Naruto wouldn't have to deal with the king of 'emo' and he would be a god among men.

Summary:

During Naruto's fight against Mizuki he dies but Kyuubi saves him by unlocking a power not seen since the Yondaime Hokage. What is the secret behind the two blades Naruto now possesses and what other secrets lay behind his new power and abilities? This will be a Naruto/Bleach crossover and a narutoxharem with character bashing.

"Talking" normal talk

'_thinking_' normal thinking

"**blah!" **Bijuu/summon talking

"_**blah!"**_ Bijuu/ summon thinking

Author's notes:

I would like to apologize to all of my readers for the long delay in posting more to this story since it has been more than entire year since my last posting. Hopefully, I can now commit more of my time to working on this once again to the best of my abilities. I have read over reviews of some of my readers and there are some or your ideas for my story that I have taken into consideration and may include them. I don't want to get into a long rant over my extended absence so now onto the story and I hope you continue to enjoy this Naruto fanfic.

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Team Eight made their way out of the Konohagakure along with their client on their mission to escort the heiress back to her village. Ayane was riding along in a horse-driven carriage with Hinata and Kurenai riding along with her inside to keep her company as well as stay close for her protection. Shino was riding up front with the driver to keep a forward lookout for any sign of trouble while Anko and Naruto ran alongside them to either side near the rear to watch for an attack from the woods. They were at least expecting a bandit attack since the area they were in was known for bandit raids of caravans that made their way to Konoha despite their close proximity to the village. They had only left Konoha a few hours ago with both Anko and Kurenai being downright pissed at Kakashi for his sexist belief that they couldn't handle this mission since they were kunoichi but it wasn't surprising since many look down upon kunoichi since they were physically weaker than Shinobi with few exceptions such as Tsunade, the Slug Sannin and Kushina Uzumaki, the Red Death. They already knew that ever since the events of team eights genin test he had been quite sore and always tried to get one over on them especially when it was a matter that involved Naruto which was quite sad.

Despite the fact that Kakashi was considered a prodigy and was a well-known Shinobi he was quite petty and fell in with the majority of the villagers and their hatred of Naruto with his burden of containing the Kyuubi no Youko. One would think that with the fact that he was trained by the Yondaime Hokage he would have more faith in the choice that Minato made of making Naruto the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi and the fact that he was an extremely skilled in fuuinjutsu but Kakashi could only see Naruto as the Kyuubi in a weak human form and the reason he lost his sensei in the first place. It didn't help the fact that he always tried to portray his team as being stronger than their genin since he had the Last Uchiha on his squad along with the Inuzuka heir and the top kunoichi at the academy, Sakura. Kakashi took a lot of pride in the fact that he was able to train the 'rookie of the year' but many knew the main reason was because he was the only one in the village that could train Sasuke in the use of his sharingan once he awakened his kekkai genkai and not because he was a great teacher since this would be the first team he had ever trained since his retirement from Anbu.

It quickly became known to Anko and Naruto that team seven could barely be considered a legitimate genin squad since they had absolutely no teamwork at all since the Anbu squad that watched over Naruto had a few of their members spy on the training of the other genin squads to evaluate their abilities and report back to the Sandaime. As a team they mainly performed teamwork drills to try developing their nonexistent teamwork skills with Kakashi reading his porn while merely watching over his students with an occasional comment to correct them on their mistakes. He mainly interacted with his team whenever Kiba and Sasuke butted heads over who was the superior member of their squad with Sakura always siding with the Uchiha as his loyal fangirl and Kiba turning on the pink-haired howler monkey. However, when their training sessions ended he would always hold Sasuke back and give him additional training in taijutsu and ninjutsu while feeding the boys ego on his superiority of his kekkai genkai over all others. If not for the fact that Kiba received additional training from his own clan mainly his mother and sister then, he would've been left behind by the Uchiha. It wouldn't have mattered to Sakura if she knew of Sasuke's additional training or not since she believed that if anything were to happen to her then Sasuke would always come to her rescue while proclaiming his undying love for her. Amongst the new rookie genin only teams eight and ten had any interactions with each other outside of training with only a few interactions with team nine such as their training swaps. Although, it was rather difficult for all the members of the two teams to get along with each other with the fact Neji and his hate for Hinata was growing with Shino and Naruto being added to the list since the two boys were very protective of the Hyuga heiress. Plus, the jealous tension between Hinata, Ino, and Tenten since the three girls were constantly vying for the attention of Naruto despite the fact the blonde was seemingly oblivious to their wants. It was rather amusing to see that the village pariah was gaining quite a bit of popularity amongst the female population since his changes despite many still hating him.

However, those were matters for another time as team eight were going to make sure that Kitima heiress made it safely back to Uzurai while under their care. The three genin had been instructed to use their various abilities to keep an eye out for any signs of an enemy attack from bandits or even the possibility of rogue shinobi. Hinata was using her Byakugan every so often to scan the immediate surroundings while Shino had some of his Kikaichu scouting the area while relaying information to him of anything of interest that they detected. Naruto was probably the most adaptable to the situation since he was able to summon large numbers of Kage bunshins and have them henge into various animals while spreading out in a perimeter around them to act as an early warning system since if they saw something suspicious then, they would dispel and Naruto would know what they saw. With his clones he able to cover more distance than Hinata's Byakugan could see and without having to wait on the delayed time for Shino's Kikaichu to relay messages to him he could help them come with a defense more quickly if they were attacked. He also utilized an additional technique called 'Chakra Sonar' which worked by having the user send out of pulse of chakra and whenever the pulse came into contact with another chakra source it would bounce back to the user and depending on the size of the echo one could tell whether it was an animal or a person. One of Naruto's Anbu guard had taught him the technique and it took him a while to get it down because he had a hard time distinguishing the difference in the chakra echoes but now he was easily able to distinguish the difference between animals, civilians, and Shinobi due to the properties of each echo. Anko and Kurenai found it funny that despite the fact Naruto was never considered to be a tracker he was fully capable of being one since due to him being the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi his senses had also been enhanced with his sense of smell being on par or even better than an Inuzuka. They both came to realize that with all of the enhancements that Naruto had received from Kyuubi over the years his body was fully adapted to the Shinobi lifestyle. This was in fact the case with all jinchuuriki since each of the Bijuu wanted to ensure the survival of their hosts while they were contained until the time they could be released again back into the world to roam so it was only natural for them to make sure their containers were as strong as possible. It was also due to the fact that according to what sort of fuuinjutsu was used to bind them to their host they may be allowed to roam free upon the death of the jinchuuriki or sent to Makai where they would have to remain for one year according to how many tails they possessed before they would reform in the land of the living again.

Hinata and Kurenai were currently passing the time away by conversing with Ayane about their different lifestyles with the Kitima heiress being very interested in the life of Shinobi. Ayane found it fascinating the Hinata was a part of the Hyuga clan who were considered to be nobility as well while at the same time being a Shinobi family and was impressed how she was able to balance the two out.

"I wish that I was able to live the sort of life that you are able to, Hinata-san. I have always been fascinated by the stories I have heard from Shinobi that passed through my village and wanted to take part in that sort of adventurous lifestyle and get away from the monotonous everyday life I was living." Ayane said.

"Our lifestyle isn't as simple or as glamorous as many believe it to be since a Shinobi tend to lead very short lives. There is always the danger of a mission going bad with you or your comrades being injured or killed and also the threat of invasion of your home village by another village or even a group that is strong enough to attack one. Luckily, we haven't had any major wars since the last great Shinobi war which caused the deaths of many good Shinobi that could've probably become great if not for the fact their lives ended so abruptly." Kurenai said.

Ayane smiled, slightly. "Oh, I am quite aware of how dangerous the life of a Shinobi is since there are quite a few retired ones living in Uzurai and I have had the chance to sit down and talk with each of them from time to time. I would just like to have a little bit of adventure every once and awhile to spice things up a little and a little bit of danger may sound a little overwhelming but if I had someone like Naruto-san with me then, I'm sure I would be fine."

Kurenai raised an eyebrow at the last statement. "I still would like to know how it is that you know of Naruto-kun when you claim you have never met before this mission since you did specifically request for a team that he was a member of. I would've been a little suspicious of you and think that you were trying something against him but he isn't known outside of the village. I also find it strange that with the fact that you are heiress to your clan that you traveled alone to the village to conduct the dealings in the first place without any attendants considering you are only in your late teens. So my question is how do you know of him?"

Ayane giggled. "As I stated before I am acquainted with someone that is quite familiar with Naruto-san but I can't give you the identity of this person other than she is a woman as well. As to why I am the one attending to these dealings is quite a simple reason with my father being bedridden because of health problems at the moment and can't really handle affairs for the village. My mother is running our village in his stead and I have been groomed to handle these sorts of things from a very young age by accompanying him on his various outings in the past to get me accustomed to them. I don't have any attendants with me at the moment since they were handling other bits of business in Konoha and I wanted to return to my father's side as soon as possible. I had heard so much about Naruto-san that I wanted to meet the young man my friend spoke so highly of and that was why I requested you and your team to be my escorts back over my originals."

"Ano, Naruto-kun must know this person if she speaks so highly of him." Hinata said.

Ayane nodded. "I am not allowed to tell you the full scope of their relationship but I can say that at one point she did live in Konoha and that was how she was able to become acquainted with Naruto-san."

Kurenai frowned at this. _'If this mystery woman is from Konoha then, she may be aware of Naruto-kun status as the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. If she was a spy for another village then this may be a ploy to get him away from the village by using Ayane-san as a cover to get him away from the village so that they can capture him. I need to warn Anko and the others that we may have to worry about an attack from Shinobi in the near future.'_

Kurenai could tell that appeared not to have any evil intentions towards Naruto but she couldn't be entirely sure since with the fact that someone that was originally from Konoha had knowledge of the young Uzumaki was not very comforting. This was added to the fact that from her own knowledge of how the villagers treated the young jinchuuriki as if he was the Kyuubi reincarnate it seemed highly unlikely that anyone would think very highly of him. She already knew that he had very few friends amongst his peers and only a few of the civilians actually treated him like the hero that he was such as the Ichiraku's and many of the Shinobi just barely tolerated his existence. It was sad that so many of the villagers praised the Yondaime Hokage for his genius and skills with his deed of defeating Kyuubi being considered his greatest achievement but at the same time they had so little fate in the seal that was used to keep the Bijuu locked away inside of Naruto's body. Ever since she had first witness Naruto's training that time she had been intrigued by the young blond and despite the fact she never got the chance to do anything for while he was younger she has grown to care for him ever since he became her pupil. It was even a shock to her that she was actually able to teach him some of her genjutsu although they were some of her low level ones but it was still surprising since even Naruto himself had admitted that he wasn't any good with genjutsu due to his large chakra reserves. She was not aware that Naruto was able to manage his chakra a lot better ever since Kyuubi was able to teach him a chakra control exercise called 'Chakra Spinning'. This was an exercise that had been used by both of her previous jinchuuriki to help them deal with the massive amount of chakra they possessed but she hadn't told him this so he was made to believe it was something she had learned in her journeys in the past. The idea behind the exercise was to force your chakra to flow in the opposite direction than it normally would and then, focus on compressing it into a tightly packed orb at your chakra center while maintaining the flow. This had an effect of help an jinchuuriki suppress the excess chakra that would normally bleed out of them on a constant basis and make it more difficult for one to be detected by a chakra sensor. This also had an added effect when Naruto stopped suppressing his chakra to create a brief moment of extreme pressure that is felt by everyone in a twenty meter radius of him in the same way as how Hyôrinmaru and Senbonzakura had taught him how to do with his reiryoku. She was glad that she was able to become the sensei to Naruto as well as Hinata along with Shino and she promised herself that she would train them as best she could so that they could grow to be strong amongst their generation of Shinobi.

She focused her attention back onto the conversation between Ayane and Hinata with the Hyuga heiress explaining to the other girl what she and the others had went through during their time at the academy. It didn't really matter what was about the academy since all they really focused on was history and the practical things that every Shinobi learned.

"Is trading with Konohagakure the only type of commerce for Uzurai, Ayane-san?" Hinata asked.

"No, we receive the income to support our village through various other means. While the selling of chakra conductive metals is one of our primary revenues Uzurai does deal with other precious ores that are used throughout Hi no Kuni. This is how Uzurai and many other villages like my own can make business with Konohagakure and even the samurai that guard the daimyo use our metals in the making of their swords since I've been told that they used some chakra related techniques." Ayane replied.

"Yes, Naruto-kun said that before and even the swords that he uses are capable of special techniques that he says only he can do since it's a part of his kekkai genkai so it isn't something that myself or my teammates could learn. It is the same for me and Shino as well since we have techniques that are exclusive to us that anyone not a member of our family can't learn." Hinata said.

Ayane nodded at this as their conversation continued on various topics between the two girls with the occasional input from Kurenai on various matters. Meanwhile, Anko, Shino, and Naruto were also engaged in conversation over some recent developments in their training much to the confusion of the carriage driver since he knew very little of the Shinobi lifestyle only that they were capable of some pretty amazing feats. The three remaining members of team eight were discussing some of their recent team strategies that utilized each of their strengths. Hinata was considered a close range taijutsu specialist because of her use of Jyuuken but she did have a few Suiton ninjutsu in her arsenal to give her more avenues to attack from since they learn she possessed a water affinity that she was able to learn from Naruto since he possessed affinities for fire, water, and wind. The Hyuga heiress was also even able to use genjutsu effectively due to her precise chakra control a fact that made Kurenai proud that she could pass her prized art onto at least one of her students. She was also continuing to work on her own version of Jyuuken with Naruto being her normal sparring partner since he was able to recover more quickly from Jyuuken strikes due to his use of Kyuubi's chakra or his reiryoku in order to open his tenketsu and even went as far as adding her water affinity into some of her attacks with various results of efficiency. Shino was considered a mid to long range specialist since the Aburame were never really known for their taijutsu but was able to incorporate kenjutsu into his offensive repertoire but not much in the way of ninjutsu despite the fact he possessed an earth and fire affinity. The reason being that because of the Aburame's symbiosis with their Kikaichu feeding on their chakra in order for them to bond with their host they didn't really possess much remaining chakra to use for any type of ninjutsu higher than c-rank ones due to the high chakra cost that was why Anko had asked Yuugao to teach him some Kenjutsu. The Aburame had even suggested the idea of a special sword that was hollowed out in its design to allow him to have some of his Kikaichu reside within the blade during combat so that whenever he clashed blades against his opponent they could quickly latch onto his opponent and drain their chakra. Naruto was able to attack from all ranges but was mostly known for his close range taijutsu and kenjutsu but also had various ninjutsu to augment his fighting style since he possessed three affinities which were believed to be contributed to the fact that he was the Kyuubi jinchuuriki since most jounin only possessed two affinities at the most. He normally utilized his wind chakra in conjunction with either Hyôrinmaru or Senbonzakura to increase their cutting edge even though the spirits of his zanpaktou assured him that they were already capable of cutting through most ordinary weapons and would only have a slight bit of resistance against more specialized chakra blades because of they were normally augmented with his reiryoku to increase their cutting edge. He knew this for certain but could never be to certain that something would happen to them and since they were a part of his soul he wanted to make sure they always remained in pristine condition. He was also working more on his kekkai genkai techniques that could only be used by him since it required only the use of reiryoku that Hyôrinmaru and Senbonzakura were instructing him making him even more versatile when you added in his ability to use what were known as Kido spells which could be used for attacking, binding, defense, and healing along with Shunpo in conjunction with his zanjutsu he was a well-rounded Shinobi.

Naruto looked around his surroundings as he took in the view of the countryside. "Still can't believe that this is the first time I've actually had the chance to explore outside of the village and really see what the outside world looks like." Naruto mused aloud.

"Well, we tried to get permission from the Hokage to take you outside of the village for training but he didn't want to risk something unexpected happening so he didn't allow it. I don't know why he thought something would happen since you would've had nine Anbu level Shinobi protecting you at all times while we trained you but we couldn't disobey a direct order from our superior." Anko said with a nonchalant shrug.

"Jiji was probably worried that the civilian council would learn that I was outside of the village walls and raise a huge stink over saying that I wasn't being properly watched or that I would go berserk and kill you and the others before escaping. Even if we were attacked by Missing Nin and one of you guys got hurt they would've tried to put the blame on me and call for my execution to remove the village 'taint'." Naruto said with a slight frown as he thought of the civilian council.

Shino raised an eyebrow. "Why would the civilian council want to have you executed for simply leaving the village for training? It is illogical for them to want to cause harm to someone that would become one of their future protectors. You are a known orphan with your only crime against the villagers have been harmless pranks that many Shinobi find amusing."

"**Because humans always look to get rid of what they don't understand or deem unnatural instead of coexisting with what may be beneficial to them in the future.**" Kyuubi suddenly said with Naruto ignoring her for the moment.

"Well, civilians aren't the most logical people around since there are many things about the Shinobi lifestyle that they know nothing about yet those on the council think that they Shinobi should bow down to them and their wishes even if two-thirds of Konoha's population are the Shinobi and Kunoichi that protect them. There is a rumor going around that my parents were traitors to the village and that once I get enough training that I will follow in their footsteps and become a threat to the village." Naruto lied.

Anko snorted as she caught onto the lie. "As if we would've allowed that to happen to our favorite little gaki in the first place and with the clan heads on your side then, you didn't have much to worry about. They could get all prissy if they wanted to but the moment they tried to pull a fast one on you I would've shown them why I'm a former Anbu and second-in-command of the Anbu Interrogation and Torture division when I introduced them to my snake summons."

Naruto shuddered for a moment as he remembered whenever Anko would use her summons to help with his training when he was younger and now with his teammates while at same time mentally grinning at the thought of the civilian council being on the opposite of the summons. A sudden thought occurred to him as he turned his gaze to the former 'Hebi' masked Anbu operative.

"Anko-sensei, I've been meaning to ask you why you left the Anbu in the first place and became a regular jounin sensei?" Naruto asked.

"I thought you would've figured that out by now, gaki. The reason why I retired from Anbu was because I wanted to get the chance to be your jounin sensei but didn't expect Hokage-sama to let me and Nai-chan train you and your friends since most teams only have one jounin sensei but I'm not complaining. You still are my favorite gaki and their still some more things that I want to teach you so now I got plenty of time to do that without Anbu missions interfering." Anko replied with a grin.

Naruto nodded at this bit of info. "Were you the only one that wanted to be my sensei?"

Anko smiled. "You should know that was hardly going to be the case, Naru-chan. Each one of us wanted the chance to be your full-time jounin instructor so we had a few contests to decide who get the chance and I was lucky to win."

Naruto sighed as this was nothing new amongst his Anbu guard from back during his days of training with them before and during his academy days. Since each were still considered full-time Anbu members they were limited on the time they could all spend with him at any given moment. Hiruzen made sure to give them as much free time as possible in order for them to train Naruto but they had to keep up the appearance of being a part of the regular Anbu forces since they were some of his best operatives. If the amount of missions they took were to decrease then, people like Danzo or even the more intelligent members of the civilian council would grow suspicious and begin making inquiries into their actions. No one needed to know that the Sandaime was having his Anbu training Naruto to become the type of Shinobi that the Yondaime wanted him to be since if he had stuck to his original plan of Naruto living the life of a regular orphan then, he really would've been the dead-last of his graduating class and would've struggled through his career until someone would've cared enough to properly train him. He was brought out of his musings by Shino's voice as he was questioning Anko about something as he focused back onto the conversation.

"Anko-sensei, is it possible that while we are in Uzurai that I commission them for an order of chakra metal to be shipped to Konoha? I've already made plans to request Higarashi-san to begin construction of the hollow blade that we've discussed as I would like to implement my kenjutsu training as soon as possible." Shino inquired.

Anko nodded. "Yeah, we should be in the village long enough for you to take care of that. I've already talk to a friend of mine and she's agreed to teach you some kenjutsu basics to get you started and I plan on working on your earth affinity as well once we get back. The Chuunin exams will be starting in Konoha in a couple of months so me and Nai-chan have to make sure the three of you are ready to put the smack down on Kakashi's brats especially the Uchiha and that howler monkey he has for a pet." Anko finished with a predatory grin as she envisioned the humiliation they would suffer at the hands of her team.

Naruto shook his head and sighed. "You just want us to beat team seven so that you can brag to Kakashi that the three of us beat his team if we have to face them during the exams." Anko's grin widened causing Naruto to adopt one as well. "I don't have that much of a problem with that since Uke-chan has been really getting on my nerves with all his demands to fight him and he has the guts to demand that I give him my swords and teach him my techniques or he'll tell the council to revoke my Shinobi registration or some other crap. With the most of the village praising the greatness of the last Uchiha loyal to Konoha has caused Sasuke to gain an ego the size of the Hokage Mountain with his belief that everyone else is beneath him. I never really liked the Uchiha very much after I learned about how their kekkai genkai worked and how they gained a lot of their techniques by taking them from others whether it was an ally or an enemy. The only downside to their copying ability was that if they didn't have the affinity for it the jutsu wasn't as effective as it normally would be or if the chakra cost was higher than what they were capable of then, they couldn't perform the jutsu with the risk of chakra exhaustion if they tried to force the technique to work which could easily lead to death. An example of this would be an Uchiha with only enough chakra reserves to perform c-rank jutsu trying to perform an S-rank jutsu that they copied from another would lead to death because it would drain all of their chakra once the final seal was used."

Shino nodded. "Yes, that would be a true conclusion of one of the abilities of the Sharingan of the Uchiha and I've heard from many of my fellow clan members of how they gained much of their fame as warriors before the founding of Konoha and through all three great Shinobi wars. In regards to Sasuke-san my father has mentioned in the past that he has made demands of all of the other clans to be taught any of our techniques that could prove useful to him in order for him to get strong enough for him to defeat Itachi-san and regain the honor of his clan. Many have said that he has made claims to avenge his clan as well as resurrect it to its former glory but has only been shown to be interested in gaining power."

"The gaki is only interested in gaining power and like Naru-chan said he has a huge ego to go along with that classic Uchiha superiority complex that they all seemed to have with a few exceptions. From what I've seen of his training he does know a few good jutsus and is pretty proficient in the use of Uchiha taijutsu but without his sharingan he can't use it to its full capacity since the style is like Naru-chan's as it requires the user to react accordingly to an opponent's attack then, counter it. He's an above average genin but he has a long way to go before he will even stand a chance at facing of someone like Itachi who was capable of single-handedly massacring his entire clan in the span of one night." Anko said. "As to his desire to resurrect his clan he has to at least take an interest in at least one girl but he's to obsessed with his revenge and if he tries to go after Itachi anytime soon he'll be killed and that would be the end of the Uchiha clan and their sharingan in Konoha since Kakashi can't pass his own since he isn't a full-blooded Uchiha."

Naruto nodded. "I remember Itachi-san from when he was among some of the Anbu that would watch over me and from hearing how he was a prodigy on par with the Sannin and even the Yondaime Hokage himself. I don't really understand the why someone as gifted and skilled as him who was loyal to the village would suddenly just turn rogue while killing his own family like that." Anko could only shrug while Shino remained silent as he had no answer as well.

'**Good riddance to that blight on my record. They were nothing more than power hungry thieves and all that remains of them are a pathetic runt and a traitor.**' Kyuubi sneered.

Naruto blinked at the unexpected comment and wondered what Kyuubi had against the Uchiha clan in the first place but decided he would wait until later to speak to his inner demon. The trio lapsed back into silence with the occasional comment between the three while remaining focus on their surroundings in search of any foreign chakra signatures. It was long before they had to settle down for the night to rest since if they would reach the village of Uzurai around early afternoon if they continued to move at their current pace. As they set up for camp Shino and Naruto were assigned to gather wood for a fire while Hinata and Kurenai gathered some fresh fish from a nearby stream they had positioned their camp next to. Anko used a doton jutsu to create a small depression in the ground so that they could build a fire inside of it so that the flame wouldn't be too visible to any passerby and decrease their chance of an enemy attack. Within moments everything was gathered together with everyone settled down to eat the provided fish while lightly conversation. Shino found it amusing how his fellow male was feeling rather uncomfortable with the fact that Naruto was surrounding by all four females with Kurenai and Anko seated on his left and Ayane and Hinata on his right as close as possible to the blond Uzumaki. Even the driver found it amusing to see the heiress trying to get close an outsider to their village as he already knew that Naruto was the young Shinobi she had wanted to meet her entire time she was in konoha because of their mutual acquaintance. They quickly settled in for the night and when the sun arouse to announce the next day they each set about to quickly freshen themselves up before returning to the road to continue their journey.

* * *

As the sun raised high above Hi no Kuni, many civilians within the walls of Konoha were setting up shop for the day while Shinobi were preparing for missions, training, or just enjoying a day away from their normal routines to recuperate or catch with their fellow nin. Beneath the village of Konohagakure lay a labyrinth of tunnels that made up the headquarters of the root or Ne Anbu. This specialized unit of Anbu is made up of highly trained Shinobi that have been conditioned to be the perfect Shinobi weapon by removing their emotions so as to not interfere with their capacity for combat. This special force was originally established during the Third Great Shinobi war to better train Shinobi for the Konoha's forces and bolster their forces with more a more efficient fighting force. The leader of this force is a member of the advisory shinobi council Danzo Shimura and a strong political figure amongst the many members of Konoha's governing powers. He was once a strong candidate for the position of Sandaime Hokage but was overlooked by Tobirama Senju in favor of his rival Hiruzen Sarutobi for the title during the final mission of Suiton master. Danzo was considered at times to be a war hawk since his main standing upon his ascension to the title of Hokage was to wage war against the other elemental nations to prove the overall superiority of Konohagakure and rule over them all. However, after his rise to power and with the end of the Shinobi wars Hiruzen had ordered Danzo to disband his Ne forces since he felt they were unneeded in the time of peace that was to follow. On the surface Danzo had seemed to concede to the demands of the Sandaime but he continued the operation of his forces while also expanding his roster. He had many supporters of his activities amongst the civilian council as well the advisory council which consisted of the Sarutobi's former teammates, Homaru and Koharu. Through the efforts of his supporters they had managed to gain much power after the Kyuubi attack before the Sandaime had retaken the Hokage seat. Upon learning of Naruto Uzumaki's status as the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune he had attempted to pull the young Uzumaki into his root under the pretense of the training him to control the bijuu's power to be used in the service of konoha. In truth he had wanted the young jinchuuriki under his complete control that way he could use his power to take the Hokage seat from Sarutobi and once he was the Godaime Hokage he would wage war on the other elemental nations with Naruto as his invincible sword to strike down his enemies. It was not to be as Sarutobi had blocked his every wish to train the boy so he had set another plan into action with the collaboration of advisors and civilian council. His plan was to alienate and persecute the boy until he became so desperate for acknowledgement that he could easily swoop in and pretend to be his salvation and could then manipulate the boy as he wished. It would've been easy since he could use the anger of the civilian and Shinobi populace in the wake of the Kyuubi attack to turn them against the boy with a few well-placed rumors of the boy being the Kyuubi stripped of his power and locked into a human form by the Yondaime. With the quick manipulation of the citizens of Konoha into a vengeance-fueled mindset it was assured that his plans would come to fruition and he would stand as the ruler of the entire elemental nations.

It had seemed that nothing could deter his plans until Naruto's fifth birthday Sandaime had made an intervention into his plan. The matron of the orphanage been placed was one that supported Danzo and his plans so in accordance to his orders she had made sure that every year that Naruto was outside the safety of the orphanage walls on his birthday which was also when they celebrated the Kyuubi festival to honor the sacrifice of the Yondaime to the Kyuubi as well as remember those that fell in battle that fateful night. This was also when civilian and Shinobi alike would gather to participate in what was known as the 'fox hunt' as mobs would be formed to search for the young Uzumaki and if found would proceed to deliver their 'rightful' vengeance against the 'demon brat' for the lives of their loved ones that 'he' had taken from them. The first time Naruto had been cornered by a mob he had merely been three years of age and was beaten until an Anbu squad led by Neko had come across the mob on a return mission. The crowd had quickly dispersed when the purple-haired Kenjutsu user had descended upon then and struck down two Shinobi that had been attacking Naruto. Upon his arrival at the hospital the hospital staff had refused to treat the boy until the arrival of the Sandaime and his threat to send them to Ibiki if they didn't tend to Naruto's more serious injuries. It was after this event that Sarutobi decided to assign Anbu guards to watch over Naruto to ensure his safety but even this was not effective since many of the Anbu corps also held Naruto in a negative light with the exception of Neko's (Yuugao) and Tora's (Tenzo/Yamato) squadrons who would actually perform their duty to keep him safe. Even with many being sent to Ibiki for their neglect of duty with those on the council that hated Naruto getting them out of trouble it made little difference so Sarutobi tried to assign only the Shinobi he could to protect Naruto. The next major attack on Naruto hadn't occurred until his fifth birthday when the matron had kicked Naruto out of the orphanage on his birthday forcing him to defend against the yearly mob that would gather during the Kyuubi festival. As the mob had begun to physically assault the boy they were suddenly stopped by the arrival of the Hokage and his own personal Anbu squad before anything could seriously done to young Naruto. However Naruto was lucky to have passed out because of the mental and physical trauma that occurred that required him to rest for several days in the hospital under Anbu guard.

It was at that moment Sarutobi realized that despite his great hopes that Naruto would be able to grow up living a normal life if what he had manage to prevent was a preview of things to come then he would make his own preparations to offer Naruto the protection he would require to survive. It was not a hard decision to make considering he knew of how many other jinchuuriki in the past were normally ostracized by the people of the villages they resided in simply because the people never seemed to have any faith in fuuinjutsu since it was such an obscure Shinobi art in the first place and very few took a true interest in it beyond the basics. With a new resolve Sarutobi gather nine of his most loyal Anbu guards to watch over the young Uzumaki and assigned them as his personal protectors. Each one of them were completely dedicated to their new role since most of them had been witness to the sealing of the young Uzumaki and therefore knew of his true connection to the Yondaime Hokage as his son and would do everything within their power to ensure that the Namikaze/Uzumaki heir grew up to be the Shinobi that he was destined to be. Sarutobi didn't even mind when the members of his special Anbu squad had taken it upon themselves to train the boy in the Shinobi arts to prepare him for the academy but had also decided to further train him when they learned that his education was being sabotaged by the academy instructors with the exception of Iruka Umino upon his third year of attending the academy. However, since Iruka was only one person it was left of them to properly train the young Uzumaki so that he was not left behind by his classmates. Although they were quick to learn that Naruto was very much the same as his father being a prodigy of hard work with the determination to push forward against any obstacle that stood in his path. With the training he would go through over the years he would grow in leaps and bounds as even Sarutobi would come to realize that Naruto would be stronger than many of the other academy students upon his graduation. Another interesting result of the training he received was the creation of his idiot mask as inspired by a certain purple haired Hebi Anbu that would later become his jounin instructor to continue to watch over him which was also used to hide his skills away from everyone else that hadn't already knew about them making him the 'dead last' of his class.

Upon learning of this action by the Sandaime Hokage, Danzo had attempted to learn of the identities of these special Anbu but was unable to since the Sandaime didn't seem to keep records of them in the Hokage office or amongst his records vault since his Ne Anbu had been unable to find any clue to their identities. He could only assume that either the elderly kage didn't keep records of them or he had them sealed away in the Sarutobi compound with his more personal records which was a right that each Hokage was allowed since they tended to keep things away from the public that related to their clans or could affect them personally. Danzo was quick to learn that all of his plans to breakdown the young jinchuuriki and make him his personal weapon would be thwarted but he didn't realize the severity of it all until after Naruto had graduated from the academy. When he had been assigned to team eight he had thought the boy would be unskilled but when he had heard the rumor of how he had performed against Sharingan no Kakashi then, he decided to take a look in upon the Kyuubi jinchuuriki himself and was quite shocked as well as pleased with what he learned. With his sudden increase in skills including a version of the Shushin no jutsu (Body Flicker) that didn't require hand seals, his change in attitude from a loudmouth brat to a more emotionally reserved youth, and the two swords in his possession with strange abilities similar of the swords used by the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shū (Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist) he was becoming the mold for an ideal weapon for Danzo to enlist the services of. The only problem was each time he would enlist one of his Ne to approach the boy to offer him further training they were always intercepted and disposed of by Naruto's own Anbu guard under the order of the Sandaime to keep Naruto away from Danzo's influence. Danzo was not so easily deterred as he knew he had to be a little more patient before he would gain the needed edge to convert Naruto into one of his prized Ne and with Naruto's abilities as the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Youko then, he would easily take control of Konoha from Hiruzen and assume his destined place as the ruler of all the elemental nations.

* * *

Hiruzen Sarutobi stood before the window of the mission room office looking out over Konohagakure as he watched those that he was sworn to protect go about their daily lives as he waited for his Shinobi to report in for their missions to be assigned by either him or one of his chuunin assistants since the academy instructor had some free time on his hands with the academy closed at the moment before the next batch would attend. After having to have dealt with the Kakashi and team seven two days ago before he had started to partake in his favorite pastime of smoking his pipe since he had already finished his paperwork for the afternoon and to relieve the stress their little argument had caused him. He found it funny that he was given the nickname of "Kami no Shinobi" because of his battle prowess and his masterful uses of his extensive jutsu repertoire but even he could never figure out how to overcome the bane of every Kage, paperwork. It was actually Naruto who had given him the idea of using shadow clones after he had learned the technique and through his use of them in training he had discovered the secret behind them and told Hiruzen. Naruto was also responsible for pointing out to the Sandaime that the obscene amount of paperwork that he tended to get was mostly dealing with civilian matters and as the Hokage that was why he had the civilian council to handle such matters. The elderly kage quickly rectified that matter by making sure his secretary understood that all civilian matters were to be handle by the civilian council and if any of their paperwork arrived to his desk it should be for his final approval only. Naturally, the civilian council were quick to object and began to try to argue that they had more important matters to attend to that required their attention such as try to come up with more ways to usurp more power from the Hokage as well a line their own pockets more. They had even had the nerve to demand that as important political figures that they have Anbu protection for themselves and their families. A quick blast of killing intent and Sarutobi was quick to remind them that despite the fact they were members of the council Konohagakure was primarily a military village and their roles were only to help the civilians could live more comfortably.

'_I've been allowing myself to become far too complacent since I retook the position of Hokage due to the peace we have obtained over the years since the last Great War. I've even allowed the civilian council to push me around in many decisions as I try to keep Naruto safe from the clutches of Danzo. However, now that he is a Shinobi under my command they can no longer touch him and with his Anbu guard always watching over him then, I can once again concentrate on wresting my power back to way that it should be. The council has used the circumstances behind Tobirama-sensei's death to keep the civilian council running. Unfortunately, they have been pushing their luck far too much to realize they are setting themselves up for a huge downfall. The more evidence I can gather against them will be quite useful the next time they try to pull a power play against Naruto or try to usurp my rule and will have them remove when they next step out of line.' _Hiruzen thought with a chuckle.

The elderly Hokage shifted his thoughts to his surrogate grandson and his team that were currently on their first c-rank mission to escort one Ayane Kitima back to her home village. He knew that team eight was more than capable of handling this assignment since they were the most of his efficient of the rookie genin teams from this years with the most missions so far straight out of the academy even if they were only d-rank with the exception of Naruto's solo B-rank mission. Naturally there had been many voices of opposition in regards to the members of the new rookie nine team arrangements which mainly came from the advisory and civilian council. Many had wanted Naruto to be placed on team seven under Kakashi along with Sakura and Sasuke but Hiruzen had quickly denied that request for many obvious reasons. It was plain to see that if he had assigned Naruto to team seven he would've been ignored in favor of the other two members of the team, mainly Sasuke. With Kakashi's obvious hate for Naruto being the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and the fact that both Sakura and Sasuke held the young Uzumaki in low regards due to the influences of the older generation it would have been problematic for Naruto. His growth as a Shinobi would've been stunted by Kakashi while Sasuke and even Sakura would improve while Naruto would remain a talentless dead-last of the rookie nine with only massive chakra reserves, henge, kawarimi, and the Kage Bunshin as his only Shinobi skills. Well that would've been the case if Naruto was actually anything like the emotional mask he had created over the years but Hiruzen knew that Naruto was far more skilled than the supposed 'Rookie of the Year' and he would not allow his grandson to be used as a stepping stone for a spoiled brat of an Uchiha. He was quite aware that the boy had been receiving special training from many of the instructors and given special favors by those that wanted to gain favor with the Uchiha heir. Since all his Shinobi were required to have periodic mental evaluations to make sure that they were suit for field duty he knew that the boy was considered a flight risk Inoichi and Yoshino Nara. The boy was so obsessed with achieving his revenge against Itachi for the Uchiha massacre and would do anything to acquire power.

'_I even had to deal with civilian council in the behalf of Sasuke making demands of Naruto for his swords and techniques. Naruto has managed to avoid any confrontations so far but after what happened the other day he may go to the council to try to force Naruto to give up what is his. I'm actually looking forward to that event so that I can reveal Naruto's bloodline and further protect him by establishing him as the heir of the Uzumaki clan but will have to hold off on revealing him as a Namikaze until he has at least reached chuunin rank. If he continues to progress at the rate he is so far along with his teammates then, they should put on a good showing when the chuunin exams take place in six months' time. I should make sure that Jiriaya gets the message to return during that time since he wanted to begin training Naruto when he became a genin. Jiriaya had already informed me that Minato had left some notes for how he was to train Naruto but I can only guess what that may be.' _Hiruzen thought.

Hiruzen was drawn from his thoughts and suppressed the urge to groan in annoyance when he saw that it was once again team seven that was paying him a visit although he was surprised to see that team ten was also with them and wondered what was going on. Moving away from the window and making his way to his desk, he took a few moments to get himself settled and noticed that Sasuke was giving him a look of annoyance at his actions and Kakashi quickly putting away his orange book so he could talk undistracted. He knew he would have to deal with the boy real soon and his arrogance of his name as an Uchiha. Maybe he could get Naruto to help in teaching the boy a few lessons in humility since he knew the blonde would take a bit of satisfaction in beating the dark haired avenger around a bit.

Somewhere it the outskirts of Hi no Kuni, a young blonde swordsman grinned evilly while running his hand across the hilt of the sword attached his waist. One of his companions, a purple-haired caramel brown eyed kunoichi mirrored his grin before turning to each other in confusion before shrugging it off.

"What is it that I can do for the two of you and your teams today?" Sarutobi inquired of his son and the copy-nin.

"I would like to put in a request for a c-rank mission for my team since we have reached the requirements of the minimal amount of d-rank missions for one?" Kakashi said with his famous eye-smile.

Sarutobi resisted the urge to sigh. '_Most teams tried to do more than the minimal amount to build up as much teamwork as possible before attempting a c-rank so that they are confident in their teammates to assist them in case something bad occurs. They don't have any sense of teamwork at all and he still wants to take them on a c-rank mission simply because team eight has already taken one and it hurt his pride that I turned him down for that mission.'_

Sarutobi smiled. "Yes, I believe you have reached the allotted minimum for a c-rank mission. Are you here for a c-rank mission as well since you already have more than enough d-ranks to request one, Asuma?"

Asuma shook his head before smiling. "Maybe that can wait for another day since my team isn't fully convinced they are ready for one just yet and want to work on a few more teamwork drills before tackle something bigger. I was actually stopping by to ask if team eight was assigned a c-rank since today was planned for us to have an inter-team spar and I haven't been able to find Anko, Kurenai, or their genin at their usual training ground."

Sasuke snorted in amusement before smirking. "They're just too afraid to take a higher ranked mission because they know how weak they are and need all three of them combined to even come close to measuring up to a fraction of my skills. I'm an elite and as the last Uchiha I am also the role model of the type of Shinobi they should strive to become if they want to be known in the Shinobi world."

Sarutobi frowned. "I don't believe that I gave you permission to speak freely, genin. You would do well to remember you are in the presence of several of your superiors and such outbursts are not tolerated unless told otherwise." Sasuke's smirk quickly became a frown.

Sakura frowned as well at the chastising of her crush. "But he was just giving his honest opinion of what we know of team ten, Hokage-sama. None of the other rookies are even half as good as Sasuke-kun and I still say it was a mistake to send team eight on that escort mission the other day."

Asuma and team ten frowned at the obvious disrespect being shown in their presence by Sakura and Sasuke with Ino being sorely tempted to go knock her former best friend out while Chouji and Shikamaru were tempted to take down Sasuke. Surprisingly, Kiba didn't add a comment but the smug smirk on his face was enough to give anyone a clue as to what his thoughts were on the matter with Akamaru giving a whine at his master and his teammates for causing trouble again.

Sarutobi level a hard gaze on the young Haruno. "Are you questioning my judgment as the Hokage as to who I should send on a mission, Haruno-san? I was the one that decided that team eight should take that mission and to have a fresh genin question my actions makes it seem as if you're calling me incompetent or unworthy to wear the mantle of Hokage."

Sakura quickly shook her head as she realized she could be charged with insubordination while the Asuma, team ten, and the chuunin all resisted the urge to face palm at the stupidity of the pink-haired genin. Sarutobi stared at her for a moment longer before looking at Kiba and Sasuke to see if they had anything to say while noting the dark-haired youth's frown before turning his gaze to Kakashi with the copy-nin flinching under hardened gaze of his leader. The silver-haired nin knew that his team was already on thin ice with the elderly kage after the events of the other day but he was just trying to appeal to the Hokage that his team was the better choice for protecting an important and attractive client like Ayane. Plus, he was tired of hearing his team complaining about constantly having to complain about the d-rank missions that were meant to improve their teamwork which was almost no existent. Most jounin instructors wouldn't allow their teams on higher rank missions since Konoha's teaching were about teamwork and wanted all future ninjas capable of supporting each other during missions. However, Kakashi was confident that despite all the tension between his genin they would pull through when it really counted and succeed in any missions since with his obvious skills and all of Sasuke's potential as an Uchiha would assure success. Kiba and even Sakura would be able to pull their weight when the time came as he was confident that his awesomeness would rub off on them eventually. Kakashi was quite arrogant since he failed to realize that as an instructor he really sucked and if Minato was still alive he would've beat the arrogance right out of him in a heartbeat.

"Kakashi, I would suggest that you make sure that your genin learn when they are allowed to speak when they are amongst their betters before they find themselves removed from active service because they feel they are more important than they really are. It doesn't matter if Sasuke is the last of his clan or that you have the Inuzuka and Haruno heirs on your squad. As of now they are the lowest ranked members of our Shinobi forces and it is your duty to improve their skills so that they can rise in our ranks when the time comes as well as teach them how to properly conduct themselves outside of combat situations." Sarutobi said with an edge. '_Who am I kidding Kakashi is the worst possible candidate to teach them about how to conduct themselves. The Inuzuka heir already has a perverted streak and if Kakashi manages to get any of them to pick up his bad habits may cause me to go insane._'

Kakashi gulped as he nodded. "I understand and will take care of that as soon as problem, Hokage-sama." The copy-nin quickly leveled a glare at his genin with Kiba and Sakura flinching while Sasuke looked indifferent.

'_As if you are actually my better just because you're the Hokage. You're just lucky that it was the Senju clan that was the first to lay claim to the title of Hokage for this village instead of being ruled by their rightful betters, the Uchiha. It is just like father said that they were trying to hold the Uchiha back from being Hokage and showing everyone the superiority of our kekkai genkai._' Sasuke thought with disdain. '_Once I've defeated Itachi and regained the honor of my clan I will appeal to the council that I'm the best choice for Hokage and the greatness of the Uchiha will be known by all._'

Sarutobi chose to ignore the smirk that suddenly appeared on Sasuke's face as he turned his gaze to Asuma and team ten. "Well, I suppose you can already make a guess as to the status team eight at the moment. I sent them on a c-rank escort mission to guard a young heiress on her way back to her village a few days ago and they should be back in a few days as well. Was that there anything else that you needed from me today?"

Asuma rubbed the back of his head. "Nah, I think we'll just take a quick d-rank mission and get back to training a little more."

Sarutobi nodded and quickly retrieved a d-rank mission that was handed to him by one of his chuunin assistants before handing to Asuma as the bearded jounin stepped forward to retrieve it. He turned back to his team and opened the scroll to see what their mission assignment was going to be before grinning at the three genin under his command.

"Alright, we have a mission to help a farmer clear away some land on his property which is a pretty good physical workout for Ino and Shikamaru so let's get to it." Asuma said.

The three genin of team seven were expecting the platinum blonde girl to complain about doing physical labor since she always complained about it back in the academy but were surprised by what came from her mouth.

"Well, since I wasn't able to find Naruto-kun today I'll just use the workout to get stronger so that the next time we spar I can show him why it isn't a good idea to leave without telling me." Ino said with a smirk.

Shikamaru shook his head. "You are the two most troublesome blondes that I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. You always try to beat Naruto up when we spar whenever he does something and not let you know about it. You act like you're his girlfriend or something with the way you're always worrying about him all the time whenever he isn't around."

Ino blushed before glaring at Shikamaru but before she could say anything she was interrupted by the pink-haired howler monkey also known as Sakura Haruno screeching to gain her attention.

"WHAT THE HELL, INO? WHY ARE YOU SO INTERESTED IN NARUTO-BAKA ALL OF A SUDDEN?" Sakura screeched causing everyone to wince at the sound of her voice before glaring at the girl.

"Not that it's any of your business, Sakura but Naruto-kun is a nice guy now that I've had the chance to get to know since his team and my team get together every now and then to spar. We're really good friends and he tolerates me a whole lot better than he does you whenever I have a minor fangirl moment which Anko-sensei and Kurenai-sensei are helping me to get over." Ino said then, grinned. "Also, do everybody a favor and stop all of that screeching before you burst our eardrums with your annoying voice. I don't even see how your teammates can stand listening to your screeching all day long."

Sakura glared at the girl but decided to tone down her voice when she noticed everyone else in the room was glaring at her for her outburst causing the girl to shrink under their gaze for a moment. She returning to glaring at her rival when she noticed she was holding back from laughing at her misfortune with the rest of team ten looking amused as well.

Sakura smirked. "Well, I guess that means you given up on Sasuke-kun if you're interested in a loser like Naruto-baka. I used to think that you had a higher standard of tastes but if you have a thing for the dead-last then, you're as hopeless as he is since he doesn't have the slightest clue about how to approach a girl and get her attention. All he ever does is act obnoxious with all of his yelling and asking me for dates when he knows I'm not even the slightest bit interested."

'_You're one the talk with the amount of times I've seen Sasuke turn down your date offers back during the academy and I know he's done even more since you guys became teammates. Why do girls always have to get into such troublesome arguments whenever a guy they like is involved?_' Shikamaru thought with a sigh.

Chouji nudged his pineapple-haired friend. "Hey Shika, I think I'm starting to see a pattern with how Ino and Sakura act every time it comes to a boy. Remember this is kinda how they started arguing over Sasuke at the start of academy but now it's about Naruto. You don't think this is going to start another rivalry between the two of them again with Naruto being caught in the middle."

Shikamaru shrugged. "I don't think that's going to be the case this time around, Chouji. Don't forget that on the day of team assignments Naruto made it pretty clear that he doesn't have a crush on Sakura anymore and Ino was friends with Naruto before we started our academy training."

Chouji nodded. "Yeah, I remember that Naruto was friends with Ino and Sakura up to about a month before we started. He was kinda like Sasuke is but wasn't really emo and was sort of anti-social like Shino but all of a sudden he changed and started acting like a goofball. I remember my dad said that it was kinda strange that his personality took a quick one eighty and mention he probably finally snapped cause of the pressure of his burden. I didn't know what he meant by that and he wouldn't tell me what he meant no matter how many times I asked."

"Yeah, my dad was saying the same thing and makes me wonder if there is something about Naruto that we don't know about. Even though we attended academy with him for six years we really don't know that much about him except that he's an orphan that was born during the Kyuubi attack. I would've classified him as the goofy dead-last of our class but ever since we started sparring with team eight he's been a totally different person and is lot more skilled than he was back in the academy. At first I thought that it was because he had been training hard since the academy but he's not only a better Shinobi but a lot smarter to." Shikamaru said then, sighed. "Naruto has become such a troublesome mystery and I just know it's going to nag at me until I figure who Naruto really is."

The two girls continued to argue back and forth to amusement of some and the annoyance of others with both Asuma and Kakashi sighing in embarrassment at how their two female genin were arguing in the presence of the Hokage. Hiruzen had a stern gaze as he stared at the two girls with everyone else waiting for him to lose his cool and chastise the two girls but inwardly he was laughing at the irony of the situation that the two were arguing over his surrogate grandson. However, he decided it was time to put an end to their arguing so that he could get back to work. Hiruzen decided to release a quick burst of chakra to draw everyone's attention to him since killing intent would've most likely been too much for the genin to handle.

"As pointless as this argument seems to be I believe that team ten is supposed to be on a mission right now and that team seven is still waiting to receive one. Normally, I would reprimand the two of you for such unbecoming behavior in my presence but I'll let it go this one time so make sure this doesn't happen again or else I won't be so forgiving." Sarutobi said with a stern gaze.

The two girls nodded meekly before the four members of team ten left to perform their assigned mission with the team seven standing at attention before the elderly kage to receive their mission. He motioned to Iruka to bring him a few c-rank mission scrolls before carefully looking through each one to judge which one should be appropriate before picking up an escort mission similar to the one that team eight received.

"Well, I've decided to give the four you an escort mission since you were adamant the other day about receiving one. Your client is named Tazuna, a bridge builder and he requires an escort back to the land of waves while receiving protection from bandits. You are to meet him at his hotel room to go over any details you feel are prudent and this mission will require you four to remain with him until the completion of the bridge. Do you accept this mission, Kakashi?" Sarutobi said.

Kakashi stepped forward to receive the scroll and after a brief scan of its contents saluted his commander. "Hai, team seven accepts and will depart first thing in the morning to the land of waves."

Hiruzen nodded and quickly dismissed the four man cell before leaning back in his chair with a sigh. Iruka walked over to collect the remaining scrolls but paused as he turned his gaze to regard his leader.

"Hokage-sama, are you sure that it's wise to send team seven out of the village on a mission like this? Out of all the rookie genin their squad has almost no teamwork at all with Kiba and Sasuke wanting to prove their dominance over each other and Sakura still being an Uchiha fangirl." Iruka said.

"I am aware of their lack of teamwork but I believe that if they get a taste of what real Shinobi work is like they may just shape up a bit to act like a real team. They are most likely to be attacked by a few bandit since the road to wave isn't usually frequented by any missing nin and with their skills even Haruno can handle a bandit or two. Besides, Kakashi will be there to watch over them and I know he will do his job correctly since he has the heir of two of our Shinobi clans and the heir to one of our civilian clans under his guidance so he won't allow them to be harmed or risk punishment. If he feels that his team can't handle the mission he knows to pull out and return to Konoha for us to assign a different team." Sarutobi said.

He had no idea that he was going to be receiving an enormous headache because of the actions Kakashi and that this mission would also be a crucial one in the development of his surrogate grandson as well. Iruka nodded at the words of his leader before returning back to his duties alongside his fellow chuunin while at the same time wondering how Naruto was doing on his mission. He was well aware that out of all three rookie teams that team eight had the most missions under their belt and the best teamwork followed by team ten with team seven in last place. He allowed a small smile to grace his face as he knew that whatever may happen on his mission that Naruto and his teammates would be able to handle themselves. Maybe he would take the blond out for some ramen when he got back since they really had time to spend time with each other ever since the Mizuki incident and he knew his surrogate brother wouldn't turn down an offer for free ramen but he could only hope his wallet could survive their little get together.

* * *

It was mid-morning of the following day that we find team eight and their carriage escort assignment once again making progress on their way to Uzurai village for the completion of their mission. All five members of team eight were now running alongside the carriage while maintaining their watch for any signs of trouble in the surrounding forests. Despite Ayane's assurances that their wouldn't be any bandit attacks this close to her village they knew that you could never truly let down your guard since the nature of a bandit tended to be unpredictable depending on who was their leader or their interests. Conversation was held to a minimum so as to not distract them and cause them to miss anything so Naruto was using this moment to have a conversation with his inner spirits as he set his body on autopilot.

'_Naruto you have been progressing quite well with your use of Bakudo (Way of Binding) and Hado (Way of Destruction) spells as well as your use of Hoho with your Shunpo becoming even faster as your body adjusts to the strain that is caused by such fast movement. Your use of Hakudo has given you a new taijutsu style to utilize and your Zanjutsu is progressing as well making you capable of utilizing a Nitoryu (Two Sword Style) style of fighting with myself and Senbonzakura._' Hyôrinmaru said with a hint of pride in his voice.

'_Yeah, everything has been coming to me much easier now that I can use my reiryoku almost as well as I can use my full chakra. I was also wondering about something that has been bothering me since you and Senbonzakura started teaching me these techniques._' Naruto thought back.

'_You have been wondering about the origin of the techniques that we have been training in how to use in conjunction with us, right?_' Senbonzakura inquired with a small giggle.

Naruto resisted the urge to sigh. _'I should've known that since you're a part of me that you should have access to my thought as well and yeah that is what I've been wondering about. The techniques that I've been using so far are pretty powerful and I just found it strange that I've never heard of anyone else using them before. I know that you said that it's a part of my kekkai genkai but if others had this power before me then, there should be some sort of records of my ancestors using zanpaktou and using Kido spells._'

'_The reason you have never heard others using this power before is because your ancestors were very secretive of their kekkai genkai because the way it came to be bestowed upon them. Originally, this power belonged solely to the Shinigami and I'm talking about more than Shinigami-sama that sealed away Kyuubi within you. Before the time of the elemental nations this world was a thriving metropolis that didn't rely solely upon chakra as a way of combat. Back during that time there was heaven which was known as the Soul Society which all pure souls went when they passed to the afterlife and Hueco Mondo were all of the evil souls went where they became another life form known as a Hollow which were creatures that took various animal and humanoid forms with holes on some part of their body normally the center of their abdomen and white bone masks across their faces. Hollows were known to feed upon other hollows as well as pure souls that had yet to leave the world of the living to gain more power and to combat these beings the Shinigami were created by the Spirit King to protect the pure souls as well as the world of the living. The war between the Shinigami and Hollows lasted for thousands of years until a Shinigami turned upon his comrades to side with the hollows with a goal to overthrow the Spirit King and obtain ultimate power. He did this by created two different races that would play a crucial role in coming battles known as Arrancar and Vizards. An Arrancar came to be when a hollow removed their masks and gained the power of a Shinigami while a Vizard came to be when a Shinigami gained a mask that was a representation of their inner hollow making the two hybrids of their original races. The rogue Shinigami whose name was Sosuke Aizen eventually began a war against the Shinigami with the world of the living being the final battlefield but in the end he lost to a Vizard by name of Ichigo Kurosaki thus saving the human and spirit world. However, to prevent such an event from never happening again the spirit king created a being of unprecedented power known as the Juubi which coincidentally was the very first Bijuu to wipe out all of the hollows and Shinigami before he set about establishing himself as the one judge of life and death. The Juubi accomplished its mission with little difficulty since it was the ultimate anti-thesis of the Hollows and Shinigami since it was a being made of tainted chakra but once they were all wiped out it turned its sights upon the world of the living and began its destructive rampage that wiped out much of mankind. The Spirit King upon realizing his mistake blessed a human with the power of chakra which was the only thing capable of harming the Juubi and the very first Doujutsu known as the Rinnengan who became known as the Rikuudo Sennin or Sage of the Six Paths. The Rikuudo Sennin battled the Juubi and finally defeated it by become the very first jinchuuriki after sealing the Juubi into his body where it remained until his death._' Hyôrinmaru explained as he paused to allow Naruto to absorb the information he was being told.

'_Okay I understand everything you've said so far but if the Rikuudo Sennin kept the Juubi sealed away in himself wouldn't the Juubi have been released back into the world upon his death since that what normally happens to a jinchuuriki when he or she dies from what Jiji has told me?._' Naruto inquired.

Senbonzakura was quick to answer. '_You are quite correct, Naruto-kun but the Rikuudo Sennin had already planned ahead for the day when that would happen. Upon his deathbed he used the power that was granted to him by his Rinnengan to split the chakra of the Juubi into nine different beings that would become known as the nine Bijuu lords of today while sealing the body of the Juubi into the moon. During his life after having sealed the Juubi away he set about teaching the remaining survivors of the Juubi's rampage the ability to use chakra but as it turned out not all Shinigami were wiped out with Ichigo Kurosaki and another Shinigami named Rukia Kuchiki as well as an Arrancar named Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck having survived while settling down to form a family since their duties as Shinigami were no longer applicable. As their blood passed through the generations the power of a Shinigami or in some cases the power of a Vizard would manifest in their descendants and would become their kekkai genkai. At first they had been afraid that the spirit king would seek them out to destroy them as he had established himself as the one true Shinigami but he didn't and allowed their newly created clan to flourish with their ability as master swordsman being known throughout the newly made elemental nations. However, as others began to fear their power they were eventually hunted down to the brink of extinction with the survivors vowing to never use their power again in order to prevent themselves from being targeted. It wasn't until two generations later when your father whom I shall not reveal at this time that the power of the your clan was revealed to the world again. Luckily, those that had wanted to end your clan had long since died out so he didn't need fear being hunted down like his ancestors and you are now the latest user of the power of the Shinigami and we are glad to be your spirit partners. The techniques of a Shinigami are naturally attuned to your soul and as your partners we have access to them and can teach them to you as well. So does this sate your curiosity of how your kekkai genkai came to be a part of the elemental nations?_'

Naruto was speechless for a moment as he allowed his mind to process this information. '_I never knew that there was so much history to my kekkai genkai and to believe that my ancestor was once responsible for saving the world only to have the one being he saved to order the extermination of him and everyone like him. I can understand he was angry that one of his guardians had tried to usurp his power but to get rid of even those that didn't have anything to do with it is just plain cruel._'

'_You will come to learn that the beings that rule our world are not always as benevolent or evil as they are portrayed as it could be seen by the history of the Shinigami and Hollows. Not all Shinigami were good and not all Hollows were necessarily evil just as the same with humans and even the Bijuu are not all entirely evil as I have come to learn from talking with Kyuubi-sama._' Hyôrinmaru rumbled.

'_What do you mean, Hyôrinmaru?_' Naruto asked.

'**It is just as he has said, Kit. Although we Bijuu are classified as demons since we were born from the tainted chakra of the Juubi we are comprised of both Yin and Yang chakra. When I was to be sealed within you the Yondaime Hokage had planned to separate the two and seal only my yin chakra into you while sealing the yang chakra within a scroll that was kept safe by his toad summon and his subordinates but this also caused an imbalance with your soul and eventually would give birth to your own inner hollow. Right now it is in a state of infancy and can't act on its own but from what I've been able to determine is that it shares some characteristics of me as well as your own but I don't know what the results of that will be just yet. However, that isn't something you should worry about right now but you should be prepared for the future when it may try to take over. As I was saying before, all Bijuu are not as malevolent as humans have made us out to be during our existence after the fall of the Juubi. For example, the Nibi no Bakeneko, Sanbi no Kyodaigame, and the ****Rokubi no Namekuji**** are the three most pacifist of the Bijuu with the Ichibi no Shukaku, the Yonbi no Saru, and the Gobi no Irukauma being the most aggressive while the Nananbi no Kabutomushi, the Hachibi no ****Kyogyū, and myself only really fought if we were attacked but mostly kept to ourselves.'** Kyuubi explained.

Naruto found himself becoming confused. '_So technically you're only half as strong as you should be so that makes your overall power around the same as the Yonbi or Gobi and I will admit that I considered all of the Bijuu to be evil though my opinion has changed much since I've had to talk to you._'

'**Thank you kit but I have to correct you on your assessment of my power. Even if I only possessed the yin half of my chakra I would still be considered the strongest of the Bijuu since all he would've done was remove any positive influences that I may have had leaving us constantly at odds with each other. Shinigami-sama realized the dangers of sealing only half of my chakra within you since it would've caused an instability in me so instead he sealed both halves of my chakra within you knowing that because of your kekkai genkai you would be able to handle my immense power more effectively as the seal did its job. This is why I have been capable of maintaining my reasoning and even though I know the reason why the Yondaime Hokage had planned to separate my chakra it was a foolish plan that would've left you quite vulnerable to the one that caused me to attack Konoha in the first place.' **Kyuubi said with a hint of anger in her soft voice.

Naruto was quick to pick up on this. _'I think you mentioned something like that before but you didn't say anything else about it so I kinda forgot and now that I think about the only time I've ever heard you sound angry has been when you mentioned about their being a reason why you attacked the village and yesterday when I was talking about the Uchiha clan. Do you have something against Sasuke-teme's clan or is it just because you picked that up from me and my dislike for them cause of how they treated me when I was younger?'_

Kyuubi sighed.** 'No, my hate for them is quite genuine and it stems from the fact that their highly coveted Sharingan is actually descended down from the Rinnengan of the Rikuudo Sennin. What the other two didn't mention was that during his life the Rikuudo Sennin had two sons that received separate aspects of the power that was given to him by Shinigami-sama. The elder of the two received his powerful spiritual aspect that resulted in him gaining the Sharingan which is actually a mutation of the Rinnengan caused by the tainted chakra of the Juubi affected it within the sons body during his birth. The youngest son received his powerful physical aspect which affected the body of the clan that would become known as the Uzumaki giving them longevity, a higher physical endurance, larger chakra reserves, and in some cases the ability to regenerate body parts or even control their aging. Some of the Uzumaki would later split from the clan to become known as the Senju and due to mixing their blood with commoners would lose much of the gifts of the Uzumaki while gaining a higher control over their Suiton elemental affinity as compensation. This was how the Shodaime Hokage was capable of using the Mokuton by combining his Doton and Suiton affinities while the Nidaime Hokage had such a strong Suiton affinity that he was able to pull water out of the very air by mixing his chakra with air molecules. Because of the fact that the Senju, Uchiha, and Uzumaki were descended from the Rikuudo Sennin the abilities of their kekkai genkai allowed them to counter us Bijuu. The Mokuton of the Shodaime Hokage could restrain us while suppressing our chakra, the Sharingan of the Uchiha was also capable of suppressing the chakra of a Bijuu and even capable of enslaving a Bijuu to the user's will if their mind and will was strong enough. Lastly, the Uzumaki were the perfect Jinchuuriki bodies because of all their physical gifts granted to them by their kekkai genkai allowing them to seal even me as only the body of an Uzumaki could withstand my infinite power since as the Kyuubi I am far stronger than the Hachibi since I received most of the Juubi's power. That is why I hate the Uchiha more than I hate the Senju or the Uzumaki since their Doujutsu has the power to rob a Bijuu of its will and effectively make us a slave despite our great power. Before his death he was to choose a successor to carry on his teachings and despite the elder being the stronger of the two he was quite arrogant in his power so the Rikuudo Sennin chose his youngest son to carry on his legacy. However, his eldest son wouldn't stand for the fact that he wasn't chosen and killed his brother which would lead to the rivalry between the Senju, Uchiha, and Uzumaki clans until many generations later when the Senju and Uchiha would come to a non-aggression agreement and later form Konohagakure while the Uzumaki would form Uzushiogakure (Village Hidden among the Whirling Tides) since they were located on an island community that resides with in Mizu no Kuni before its destruction.'**

Naruto perked up at this. '_So does this mean that I may have some family located in Mizu no Kuni and possibly Kirigakure?_'

'**It could be possible but I highly doubt that since the Uzumaki clan was highly feared because of their Fuuinjutsu as well as their seven swordsmen known as the Uzushio no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shū (Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Whirling Tides). Uzushio was allied with Konoha at the time with one of your ancestors Mito Uzumaki being married to the Shodaime Hokage, Hashirama Senju to further improve their alliance. However, the fall of Uzushio came when Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and Mizugakure formed an alliance to eliminate Uzushiogakure. Despite the small size of the village their fuuinjutsu and the abilities of the seven swordsmen allowed them to hold them off for a time while they waited for reinforcement from Konohagakure and Sunagakure but before their allies could reach them the village fell with the survivors scattering across the lands. From what I came to learn the ruins of Uzushiogakure still remain since despite its people being gone the treasures of Uzushio are still protected by very powerful fuuinjutsu that have yet to be countered with Kiri managing to claim the seven swordsmen and there blades at their own. As a way remembrance of their alliance with Uzushio the spiral symbol that his worn by Shinobi of Konohagakure is actually the symbol of Uzushiogakure and that is why you should always wear that symbol with pride since many Konoha nin don't even know the significance of the symbol they so proudly wear.' **Kyuubi replied.

'_You sure do seem to know a lot about my ancestors and even known a lot of things that I never heard of in the academy. I guess since the fact you and the other Bijuu have been around since the beginning of the Shinobi era you would know much of our history. I'm actually surprised you've been so cooperatively with me lately since you once told me that you would only tell me things if I gained enough respect from you._' Naruto said.

'**Kit, I am only telling you such things since they are a part of your history and since I am a bit regretful that because of me you didn't get raised the way that you should've been. It's not surprising that many don't see you as a true Uzumaki despite your last name since the Uzumaki were all known to have various shades of red hair and you are the first blond Uzumaki I have ever met. I guess that in a way I see you as my own kit instead of my jailor and that is why I want you to become as powerful as you possibly can become so that you carry on my legacy as well as the legacy of your ancestors. Like I said before I am not as evil as they say I am even though my power is fueled by all of the negative emotions of the human psyche I have been influenced by the positive as well.' **Kyuubi replied.

Naruto allowed a brief smile to break his emotional mask. _'Thanks a lot for everything, Kyuubi-Kaasan.'_

Kyuubi was glad that Naruto wasn't in his mindscape or that the fact that both Hyôrinmaru and Senbonzakura were in the own areas of his mind or they would've seen the light blush that now adorned her features at hearing Naruto's new name for her. She quickly pushed down the blush while wondering why she was becoming so soft of Naruto before responding to his last words.

'**You're welcome kit now I believe you should focus back on the outside world.' **Kyuubi said with Naruto giving a mental nod before severing the connection with his inner spirits.

Naruto was surprised that during the entire time he was having his inner dialogue that no one had attempted to engage in a conversation with him and counted himself lucky since he was still unsure as to how Anko and Kurenai would react if they knew he was in contact with Kyuubi or that his body contained two more spirits as well. He was suddenly drawn away from his musings when the driver announced that they would reach Uzurai after crossing the next hill. It was only a moment later that the village came into view and the genin of team eight were impressed by the village. It was smaller than Konohagakure being only about two thirds its size while surrounded by high mountains with the village nestled at the valley of two mountains. A large river flowed through the very center and branched out into various smaller ones with the village itself being almost on par with Amegakure in its industrialization. It was surrounded by a high wall with four sentry watchtowers with two archers positioned in each tower with samurai guards walking the walls itself and posted at the both gates at the northern and southern ends of the village. With his enhanced eyesight Naruto could just barely make out many of the populace moving around within the village walls indicating them engaging in various trades of goods and wares meaning Uzurai was known for and showing that the village was indeed a commercial village just as Ayane had informed them. Upon reaching the village gates, Kurenai quickly showed the guards their mission scroll as Ayane presented herself for visual verification before making their way inside. As they made their way to the Kitima mansion they saw how everyone made way from them while greeting the Kitima heiress indicating that her family was well-loved amongst the populace. Upon their arrival at the mansion, Ayane quickly disembarked from the carriage and greeted the servants of her family while beckoning team eight to follow her inside. They followed her through the large mansion while taking in the beautiful design of the building.

Ayane turned to them as they stepped into a large room that could be considered a reception hall. "I shall arrange for rooms to be prepared for your team so that you may take a rest since I know some of you would like to conduct some business here in Uzurai. They will attend to your needs as if you were a member of my family since you are my honor guests so feel free to ask them of anything that you are not certain as it pertains to the village."

Kurenai spoke up. "We understand and I'll make sure that Anko and Naruto stay out of trouble so as not to offend you."

"Hey, why do you have to assume me and Naru-chan are going to cause trouble? That isn't very nice putting us on the spot like that, Nai-chan." Anko pouted.

"That's because you always get rowdy when you get angered or if you have a little too much sake while Naruto-kun would prank someone if they managed to offend him in some way. Although, he hasn't pranked anyone in a while but you can never be too sure since he's still Konoha's most unpredictable Shinobi even if he acts more reserved nowadays. I just don't want our first c-rank turning into an international incident because you offended someone important in this village or got into a fight with someone and caused some sort of structural damage." Kurenai replied with a grin.

"Don't worry I'll be on my best behavior and make sure to keep Anko-neechan out of trouble, Kurenai-sensei." Naruto said with a small grin.

"Oh, don't tell me you're going to turn on me as well, Naru-chan. You're supposed to always be on the side of your lovely neechan and now Nai-chan has charmed you away from me. I think me and Hinata-chan are going to have to keep a close eye on her as well and make sure she doesn't try anything inappropriate." Anko said with a teasing grin.

Hinata and Kurenai blushed as they realized what Anko meant before the crimson-eyed beauty glared at her friend with the purple-haired kunoichi playfully sticking out her tongue in response. Ayane, Shino, and Naruto could only watch in amusement with the former sneaking glances at the blond the resisting the urge to blush as she thought of naughty things to do with him that was unbecoming of a young woman of her status.

"Well, I see that Ayane-chan has returned home and that she has brought back some rather interesting guests from Konoha with her." A soft, feminine voice said from behind the group.

Naruto stiffened at the sound of the voice as he and the rest of the group turned in the direction that the voice came from before his eyes widened in shock. Entering the room from left side was a young woman in her late teens with long silvery-white hair that was split into two braids that extended across her shoulders (her hairstyle is just like Retsu Unohana from bleach) and amber colored eyes. She was around the same height as Kurenai with fair-skin and they could tell she had a rather lithe athletic build due to the fact she was dressed in a pair of blue Shinobi pants and a loose short sleeved shirt and casual slippers. She had a towel draped across her right shoulder indicating that she had been working out before coming to greet them. As she made her way towards the group Anko, Hinata, Kurenai, and Shino could clearly see that she was walking directly towards a stunned Naruto which made them confused while Ayane watched amused as she knew the reason why. Once the woman was standing a few feet in front of Naruto she placed her left hand on her hip and flashed him a grin.

"Well, are you going to stand there and gape at me for being so beautiful or are you going to properly greet me like you should, foxy-kun?" the girl inquired still grinning.

Naruto knew that only one person would've ever called him by that name and knew without a shadow of a doubt that the young woman standing before him was his old childhood friend, Kanae Sanada. His hand instinctively reached up the grasp the pendant at his neck as so many questions raced through his mind as to why she was here and where had she been all of this time. He barely realized as he took a few steps forward and once he was in range he embraced the girl with the amber-eyed girl returning the gesture as she was happy to see her old friend as well. She knew he had questions for her but as the others looked on now they were merely happy to be in the presence of one that was precious to them.

* * *

A/N: Well after over a year of not being able to update this story I have finally been able to bring you chapter 5 of Konoha's Shinigami. I had originally had this chapter planned out another way but I kept having problems with the direction it would go and had to constantly rewrite it as more ideas came to me. In this chapter I gave a background history as to how Naruto's bloodline came to be since in my story the Shinobi nations came to be after the Juubi destroyed our modern world before being revived as the elemental nations after its fall. I know that I may get flamed for some of the events that I have placed in this story but this is a story of my creation so the history is designed to support my theme for this story. I'm not going to go into a long rant or give any previews to the next chapter as I want that to be a surprise but I hope that you like my story so far and I will try to update at least once a week from now on. As always I appreciate any reviews and all ideas will be considered so if you see an idea of yours appear in my story it's because I have acknowledged your creativity. Also, the harem shall remain in single digits and I may change which girls are in it so be on the lookout for a girl that you wanted may or may not appear so until next chapter peace and bye for now.


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